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 zebulon 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 the 2 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 washington correspondent oliver salih oliver 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 3 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 6 so essentially here the accusation is that their marketing practice 6 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 druck 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 6 so essentially making the case that this is all about drug abuse. bellaver this show is close to 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 dollar 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 obtain 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 these substances is not very high is 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 doctor is 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 oversoul is joining us from washington following the trial that will be keeping tabs on this well thank you. general electric is considering plans to cut more than a 1000 jobs and friends of us 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 out storms power business in 2015.

let's go over to new york now and talk to our financial correspondent jose luis de 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 to make. systems for gas and coal fired power plants for actually 71 percent launch in the 1st quarter profit do you believe orders 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 ged opportunities for growth the company has expected to see something that could explain the d.s. is china's a rising determination to replays imports from g.e.

gaza power turbans with the domestic 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 renault 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 of fear at chrysler and the north for the workers turn out because the bosses are negotiating a possible merger the idea is to create a new also giant but it's not just french workers the french state also wants jobs to be protected. should you take hold of i know chairman john dominique's and now

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 good noan japan's nisson. so there i want this deal within the framework of the nowness on alliance which goes back 20 years we want to strengthen it it's resulted in important technological investments and put all the government owns 15 percent of the middle which explains why it's so vocal about the mega deal power is once the new group to be a global leader in developing batteries for electric. cries women can only hope to achieve cost savings of 5000000000 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 report 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

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 in the states efforts to combat poverty are not always welcome. sunny and she. he is the latest and perhaps last of generations of name attic fisherman who worked at the y. and yellow rivers in the nam province peace watch from the water as the skyline of nearby junk joe has expanded and expanded but the prosperity that's enabled the provincial capital to grow has not made it as far as son and his family. they are all about how you could tell you if i was high rise buildings have nothing to do with me. or for others enough for me to. just use a food to look at their high that says. they have nothing to do with me.

either way all. the conditions in which son and his family live a star is 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 but because of me this is all they can do. but if i switched jobs and i were able to encourage my kids they might become a big boss so something. that could happen it's not a 100 percent certain but it is possible. fishing 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 up. and that's it for me in the business team i'm stephen birds and thanks for watching.

keen on a sex phone operator who works her masters thesis on the potato from. not a turn on well it's more words that there was from. last. time to take one step further and face the. time to snatch the you know fun before the troops. tumble into a conference and contact the world it's time for you to double it. coming up ahead. i'm not going to think out of the gym i just sometimes i am but i'm still laughing with the german think stevens or

german culture of looking at the stereotype but interesting to see the country that i don't. need to rethink his grandmother there you go it's all about their new i'm rachel joins me from the german from d.w. . post. this is news africa coming up in the next 15 minutes comes to a standstill protesters launch a 2 day general strike to protest the ruling military just hand over power to a civilian it will force. and we meet the historian who wants to teach african children a different narrative on the history of the continent one.