Monsanto loses in court in Roundup controversy

Roundup weed killer was a substantial factor in a California man’s cancer, a jury determined Tuesday in the first phase of a trial that attorneys said could help determine the fate of hundreds of similar lawsuits.

The unanimous verdict by the six-person jury in federal court came in a lawsuit filed against Roundup’s manufacturer, Monsanto. Edwin Hardeman, 70, was the second plaintiff to go to trial out of thousands across the country who claim the weed killer causes cancer.

Monsanto says studies have established that Roundup’s active ingredient, glyphosate, is safe.

The trial will now proceed to the second phase to determine whether the company is liable and, if so, for how much.

A San Francisco jury in August awarded another man $289 million after determining Roundup caused his non-hodgkin’s lymphoma. A judge later slashed the award to $78 million. forces.

The taking of the IS camp was a major advance but not the final defeat of the group in Baghouz, the last village held by the extremists where they have been holding out for weeks under siege, according to Mustafa Bali, the spokesman for the Kurdish-led force known as the Syrian Democratic Forces.

Still, fighters from the force were starting to celebrate anyway.

An unknown number of IS militants still clung to a tiny sliver of land trapped between the Euphrates River and the encampment now held by the SDF, officials in the force said.