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and a must see concerning parts of the church in europe the 1st place to be curious minds . do it yourself networkers. so for subscribing and don't miss our. body. the u.s. has struggled for years with an epidemic of opioid drug addiction now landmark trials underway that could hold drug maker johnson and johnson partly responsible we'll give you the details. also on the show mergers and restructurings aren't so easy when you're talking about french jobs just ask g.e. which is looking to make cuts. and china's government has lifted hundreds of millions out of poverty so how does it get the rest we'll look at one story.

welcome to your business i'm stephen beard sambolin good to have you with us. consumer products giant johnson and johnson has begun defending itself in a landmark u.s. trial that seeks to assign blame for the country's prescription painkiller epidemic the state of oklahoma accuses the firm of deceptively marketing opioid painkillers and understating their addictive potential it to other pharmaceutical companies produce pharma and israel's teva have already settled with oklahoma the trial is the 1st against a drug manufacturer in connection with the crisis and it's being watched by dozens of other states which have filed similar suits. there's now for more on this i'm joined now by dee washington correspondent all over salad all over it could have you on the show 1st off one of the accusations against johnson and johnson and what does the company say. well the major accusation is that johnson and johnson has been for years now producing and marketing highly addictive opioid substances and

basically under playing the risks off addiction here and one of the most prominent drugs they produce are patches with the substance of fenton ill and fentanyl is 50 times stronger than heroin so essentially here the accusation is that their marketing practices and marketing practices of other drug makers in the united states can be held accountable for the ongoing crisis in the united states and of course truck makers are fighting back they say that it's not the fault of the producers because the industry is already heavily regulated in the united states but it's rather the fault of those distributing these trucks like physicians for instance that they hand out opioid painkillers to easily for instance and so essentially making the case that this is all about drug abuse. all over this child's clothes are being followed in the u.s.

can you give us an idea of how big and how much scale this crisis this addiction crisis has there. well you can easily see and feel that when you travel the united states whether you go up to rural areas like in new england or also west virginia which is one of the areas that are very heavily hit by the ongoing opioid crisis but you can also see people under the influence of opioids in certain areas of bigger cities like even washington d.c. now the attorney general in oklahoma today called this the worst manmade public health crisis in the history of the united states and for that reason and in light of that this is a very important and interesting lawsuit that began today also because some other 2000 lawsuits are set to follow that were filed by states by counties also by native american tribes that are very heavily affected and it will be a test also whether the drug makers can be held accountable for the opium crisis in

the united states or not all over these are often prescription drugs we're talking about why has it been so hard to regulate the briefly if you can well 1st of all these drugs have become stronger in recent years and also more addictive and that led to a situation where you would be able to chain them from your local drug dealer on the streets and sort of like their out of control physicians that is one reason the other reason is that the threshold that the hurdle to obtain these substances is not very high so if you were to make the case that you are suffering from chronic pain your doctor might prescribe you an opioid painkiller very easily other addicts see their doctors even willing to hurt themselves to obtain them there are reports about people even shooting themselves in their legs just to get a fence in the overselling joining us from washington following a trial that will be keeping tabs on his well thank you. general electric is

considering plans to cut more than a 1000 jobs and friends now that's despite the french government repeatedly urging the u.s. engineering firm not to do so proposals would see most of the cuts made at g.e. is power equipment business for in the east of the country earlier this year g.e. was fined by the government france for failing to meet a promise to create a 1000 jobs after require the french firm al storms power business in 2015. let's go to new york now and talk to our financial correspondent jose luis to haro jose g.e. has been struggling lately in europe what's going on there well general electric is still struggling we have to be she knew we lost nearly 1000000000 dollars last year were we make. systems for gas and coal fired power plants for actually 71 percent launch in the 1st quarter profit do you

alders a business area has seen its margin levels drop and for said to turn around the business are taking way longer than many had expected potentially lucrative chinese market it's not giving g.e. the opportunities for growth that the company has expected to see something that could explain to these china's a rising determination to replace imports from g.e. gaza power turbans we don't mess with production also let's not forget about all the factors such as a slowdown in global economy competition from major players like siemens and the threat of a rising target and all the. eighty's also worth noting that general electric eliminated 30000 jobs last year was in the heart of the force in new york thank you . and speaking of french jobs renaud and chrysler are considering joining forces to create one of the largest car companies in the world and the

french government wants a guarantee that no jobs will be cut in any merger. fear is stalking the assembly lines that fear cries of the north for the workers turn out cars and buses and negotiating a possible merger the idea is to create a new water giant but it's not just french workers the french state also wants jobs to be protected. should you take hold of a no chairman john dominique's and now it very clearly that it was the 1st of the guarantees i wanted from him in the opening of these negotiations with. a guarantee for french industrial jobs on sites and another guarantee required by the minister any deal must strengthen the alliance between the no one japan's nikkei. so there i want this deal within the framework of the known isaan alliance which goes back 20 years we want to strengthen it it's resulted in important technological investments don't the government owns 15 percent of its own no which explains why it's so vocal

about the mega deal paris wants the new group to be a global leader in developing batteries for electric. chrysler in the normal hope to achieve cost savings a fine 1000000000 euros annually with the merger the theory being that if they are successful they'll have much more to invest in electro mobility. over to asia now we're china appears to be signaling that it could restrict exports of rare earth metals to the u.s. that would open a new front in the trade dispute between the 2 countries are poor by the state controlled global times newspaper said beijing was already making such plans a state official told reuters on the same day the domestic consumption would be the future priority although china is willing to meet what it called reasonable demands from other countries and china accounts for 80 percent of rare earth metals which are critical for tech products and military weapons. and let's stay with china the country's economic transformation has been one of the biggest stories of the past

decades since 1979 market reform and foreign investment have helped 700000000 people work their way out of poverty china's become the world's 2nd largest economy and the communist party says that because the because of reform only around $30000000.00 people now live below beijing's poverty line which is about a dollar a day the government says it can bring that number to 0 by 2020 as the next year and meanwhile china's wealth gap is growing the richest 100 people now have more wealth than the poorest 2 fifths of the population combined the difference is income between urban and rural areas is a key driver of income inequality and the states efforts to combat poverty are not always welcome. sunny and she. he is the latest and perhaps the last of generations of name magic fisherman who worked at the y. and yellow rivers in canal province peace watch from the water as the skyline of nearby junk joe has expanded and expanded with the prosperity that's enabled the

provincial capital to grow has not made it as far as son and his family. neither coral that are you could tell you if i was high rise buildings have nothing to do with me. or for others enough i'm a. beautiful to look at their high that say. they have nothing to do with me. or your way all. the conditions in which son and his family live a star is a little boy spends much of his time playing in the rubble of their last home. the new temporary place is better but with son and his wife sometimes making just $75.00 a month between them the family falls below beijing's threshold for extreme poverty of a dollar a day per person some hopes for better for his children. for the few who are because of me this is all they can do. what if i switched jobs and were able to

encourage my kids they might become a big boss or something. that could happen or 100 percent certain but it is possible. phishing of the rivers is now illegal not just for environmental reasons china wants to eradicate extreme poverty by 2020 by driving than a magic fisherman off the water the government hopes to push them into the city into houses and into better paid work. and that's it for me in the business team i'm stephen beard it's watching.

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