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In April 2000, Elsevier published an article in the journal Regulatory Toxicology and Pharmacology, which claimed that the herbicide Roundup (glyphosate) from the Monsanto Company didnt pose a risk of cancer or other health issues for humans. Twenty-five years later, the publisher has retracted that paper, citing litigation that revealed it was based solely on unpublished studies by Monsanto itself. Furthermore, Elsevier states that the article (titled Safety Evaluation and Risk Assessment of the Herbicide Roundup and Its Active Ingredient, Glyphosate, for Humans) appears to have been co-written with Monsanto employees, despite no explicit accreditation. Monsanto might have also compensated the articles authors: Gary M. Williams, Robert Kroes, and Ian C. Munro, the article states. “Significant impact on regulatory decision-making” Its impossible to overstate the influence this article had over the more than two decades since it was published. The paper had a significant impact on regulatory decision-making regarding glyphosate and Roundup for decades,” Martin van den Berg, the journal’s co-editor-in-chief, writes in the retraction notice. Van den Berg adds that the lack of clarity regarding which parts of the article were authored by Monsanto employees creates uncertainty about the integrity of the conclusions drawn.” “Specifically, the article asserts the absence of carcinogenicity associated with glyphosate or its technical formulation, Roundup,” Van den Berg wrote. “It is unclear how much of the conclusions of the authors were influenced by external contributions of Monsanto without proper acknowledgments. According to Elseviers metrics, the article has been cited 779 times, including 66 policy citations. Revelations widely covered in 2017 While Van den Berg has just now taken action to retract the paper, the litigation he cites dates back to 2017. The revelations were widely covered at the time, yet the landmark paper remained untouched. This decision has been made after careful consideration of the COPE [Committee on Publication Ethics] guidelines and thorough investigation into the circumstances surrounding the authorship and content of this article and in light of no response having been provided to address the findings, Van den Berg states as an explanation. Van den Berg reached out to Williams, the sole living author, for an explanation but received no response. In recent years, Monsanto has paid billions of dollars across numerous lawsuits alleging that Roundup causes cancer. Bayer, the German chemical and pharmaceutical giant, acquired Monsanto in 2018 and retired the brands namewhich had become a liability. Fast Company has reached out to Williams and Bayer for comment and will update this post if we hear back. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has continued to state that glyphosate is unlikely to be a human carcinogen, based on study reviews. This week, the Trump administration pushed the U.S. Supreme Court to curb lawsuits against Bayer that allege Roundup causes cancers. Shares of Bayer AG (ETR: BAYN) jumped more than 12% in response to the Trump administrations brief.
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The Federal Reserves preferred measure of inflation changed little in September, likely easing the way to a widely expected interest rate cut by the central bank next week. Prices rose 0.3% in September from August, the Commerce Department said Friday, in a report that was delayed five weeks by the government shutdown. It matched the increase recorded during the previous month. Excluding the volatile food and energy categories, core prices rose 0.2% in September from August, the same as August, and a pace that if it continued for a year would bring inflation closer to the Feds 2% target. Compared with a year ago, overall prices rose 2.8%, up slightly from 2.7% in August. Core prices also rose 2.8% from a year earlier, a small decline from the previous months figure of 2.9%. The data indicate that core inflation was muted in September and will bolster the case for a cut to the Feds key interest rate at its next meeting Dec. 9-10. Inflation remains above the central banks 2% target, partly because of President Donald Trumps tariffs, but many Fed officials argue that weak hiring, modest economic growth, and slowing wage gains will steadily reduce price gains in the coming months. At the same time, there were some warning signs in the figures. Omair Sharif, chief economist at Inflation Insights, said that Friday’s report overall will likely reassure the Fed that core inflation is mostly cool. But he noted that a measure of services inflation in the report remains elevated and could raise concerns among some Fed policymakers, since the higher figure doesn’t stem from tariffs, but instead broader inflationary pressures. It hasnt really shown any sign of slowing down, Sharif said. That has to be concerning for them. The Fed is facing a tricky decision next week: It would typically keep rates high to fight inflation. At the same time, it is worried about weak hiring and a slowly rising unemployment rate. It hopes that reducing rates will spur more borrowing and boost the economy. Fridays report also showed that consumer spending grew, though at a slower monthly pace in September than the previous month, suggesting Americans were willing to spend despite high prices and stagnant hiring. Spending rose 0.3% in September, down from 0.5% in August. More recently, Americans appeared to step up their spending on Black Friday and the weekend after Thanksgiving, which could boost growth in this years fourth quarter. Online spending jumped 7.7% during the five days after Thanksgiving, compared to the same period last year, according to Adobe Analytics. Incomes, meanwhile, rose at a solid 0.4% in September for the second straight month. The economy is sending unusually mixed signals, as growth appears solid even as the unemployment rate has ticked up to a four-year high of 4.4%. Home sales are moribund and factories have been cutting jobs, yet a boom in investment in artificial intelligence data centers has boosted the broader economy. But on Wednesday, payroll processor ADP said that businesses shed 32,000 jobs in November, a sign that companies are starting to lay off workers. Should job cuts continue, consumers would likely rapidly dial back their shopping, weakening the economy. The government will issue its own jobs report for November on December 16, which for now is forecast to show a small gain, according to data provider FactSet. Christopher Rugaber, AP economics writer
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E-Commerce
The Trump administration will be expanding its ban on travel for citizens of certain countries to more than 30, Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem said, in the latest restriction to come since a man from Afghanistan was accused of shooting two National Guard members. The expansion would build on a travel ban already announced in June by the Republican administration, which barred travel to the U.S. for citizens from 12 countries and restricted access to the U.S. for people from seven others. In a social media post earlier this week, Noem had suggested more countries would be included. Noem, who spoke late Thursday in an interview with Fox News Channel host Laura Ingraham, would not provide further details, saying President Donald Trump was considering which countries would be included. In the wake of the National Guard shooting, the administration already ratcheted up restrictions on the 19 countries included in the initial travel ban, which include Afghanistan, Somalia, Iran and Haiti, among others. Ingraham asked Noem whether the travel ban was expanding to 32 countries and asked which countries would be added to the 19 announced earlier this year. I won’t be specific on the number, but it’s over 30. And the president is continuing to evaluate countries, Noem said. If they don’t have a stable government there, if they don’t have a country that can sustain itself and tell us who those individuals are and help us vet them, why should we allow people from that country to come here to the United States? Noem said. The Department of Homeland Security did not respond to requests for comment about when an updated travel ban might go into effect and which countries would be included in it. Additions to the June travel ban are the latest in what has been a rapidly unfolding series of immigration actions since the shooting Thanksgiving week of two National Guard troops in Washington. Rahmanullah Lakanwal, who emigrated to the U.S. from Afghanistan after the U.S. withdrawal, has been charged with first-degree murder after one of the two victims, West Virginia National Guard Specialist Sarah Beckstrom, died of wounds sustained in the Nov. 26 shooting. The second victim, Staff Sgt. Andrew Wolfe, was critically wounded. Lakanwal has pleaded not guilty. The Trump administration has argued that more vetting is needed to make sure people entering or already in the U.S. aren’t a threat. Critics say the administration is traumatizing people who’ve already gone through extensive vetting to get to the U.S. and say the new measures amount to collective punishment. Over the course of a little more than a week, the administration has halted asylum decisions, paused processing of immigration-related benefits for people in the U.S. from the 19 travel ban countries and halted visas for Afghans who assisted the U.S. war effort. On Thursday, U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services announced it was reducing the time period that work permits are valid for certain applicants such as refugees and people with asylum so they have to reapply more often and go through vetting more frequently. Rebecca Santana, Associated Press
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