Category World News

Jury orders Johnson & Johnson to pay $966m in talc cancer case

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Johnson & Johnson has been ordered to pay $966m to the family of a woman who died from mesothelioma, finding the company liable in the latest lawsuit alleging its baby powder products cause cancer.

The court in Los Angeles handed down the ruling late on Monday.

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The pharmaceutical giant has to pay the family of Mae Moore, who died in 2021. The family sued the company the same year, claiming Johnson & Johnson’s talc baby powder products contained asbestos fibres that caused her rare cancer. The jury ordered the company to pay $16m in compensatory damages and $950m in punitive damages, according to court filings.

The verdict could be reduced on appeal as the United States Supreme Court has found that punitive damages should generally be no more than nine times compensatory damages.

Erik Haas, J&J’s worldwide vice president of litigation, said in a statement that the company plans to immediately appeal, calling the verdict “egregious and unconstitutional”.

“The plaintiff lawyers in this Moore case based their arguments on ‘junk science’ that never should have been presented to the jury,” Haas charged.

The company has said its products are safe, do not contain asbestos and do not cause cancer. This isn’t the first time Johnson & Johnson was ordered to pay damages to a family after a lawsuit that alleged a link between cancer and its baby powder products.

In 2016, a Missouri court ordered the company to pay $72m to the family of Jacqueline Fox, who died of ovarian cancer.

In 2024, Johnson & Johnson was also ordered to pay $700m to settle lawsuits alleging it misled consumers about safety after an investigation brought by 43 state attorneys general.

J&J stopped selling talc-based baby powder in the US in 2020, switching to a cornstarch product. By 2023, it had ended talc-based baby powder sales as well.

Trey Branham, one of the attorneys representing Moore’s family, said after the verdict that his team is “hopeful that Johnson & Johnson will finally accept responsibility for these senseless deaths”.

Thousands of lawsuits

J&J is facing lawsuits from more than 67,000 plaintiffs who say they were diagnosed with cancer after using its baby powder and other talc products, according to court filings. The number of lawsuits alleging talc caused mesothelioma is a small subset of these cases with the vast majority involving ovarian cancer claims.

J&J has sought to resolve the litigation through bankruptcy, a proposal that has been rejected three times by federal courts.

Lawsuits alleging talc caused mesothelioma were not part of the last bankruptcy proposal. The company has previously settled some of those claims but has not struck a nationwide settlement, so many lawsuits over mesothelioma have proceeded to trial in state courts in recent months.

Canada’s Carney makes second White House visit as trade tensions loom

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Canada’s Prime Minister Mark Carney is on his second visit to the White House in five months as he deals with increasing pressure to address US tariffs on steel, autos and other goods that are hurting Canada’s economy.

Carney and United States President Donald Trump met at the White House on Tuesday.

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“From the beginning, I liked him, and we’ve had a good relationship,” Trump told reporters in the Oval Office, sitting next to Carney.

“We have natural conflict. We also have mutual love … you know we have great love for each other,” he added, saying the two men would discuss tariffs including potentially lowering tariffs on key Canadian sectors as part of efforts to ease trade tensions between Washington and Ottawa.

More than 77 percent of Canada’s exports go to the US.

A Canadian government official and several analysts played down the chances of an imminent trade deal with Trump and said the mere fact that discussions are continuing should be considered a success for Carney.

Among the topics up for discussion are trade and the United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement (USMCA), which is critical to Canada’s economy and is up for a review next year.

Trump said he was willing to revisit the free trade agreement, which was enacted during his first term, or seek “different deals.”

“We could renegotiate it, and that would be good, or we can just do different deals,” he said. “We’re allowed to do different deals.”

Trump exhibited a fondness for Carney, something he didn’t display toward Carney’s predecessor, Justin Trudeau. He described Carney as a “world-class leader” and said he’s a tough negotiator.

The prime minister last visited the Oval Office in May, when he bluntly told Trump that Canada would never be for sale in response to Trump’s repeated threat to purchase or annex Canada.

Since then, the prime minister has made numerous concessions to Canada’s biggest trading partner, including dropping some counter tariffs and scrapping a digital services tax aimed at US tech companies.

Carney’s office has said the working visit will focus on forging a new economic and security relationship with the US.

“In areas where we compete, we have to come to an agreement that works, ” Carney said.

White House spokeswoman Karoline Leavitt said on Monday: “I’m sure trade will be a topic of discussion … and all of the other issues that are facing both Canada and the United States.”

While the majority of Canada’s exports are entering the US tariff-free under the USMCA, tariffs have pummeled Canada’s steel, aluminium and auto sectors and a number of small businesses.

“The reality is that right now, Canadian products have among the lowest tariff rate,” said Jonathan Kalles, a former adviser to Carney’s predecessor, Trudeau. “You don’t want to poke the bear when things could be much worse,” he said, adding that any meeting with Trump is a calculated risk.

“Carney will probably get a better deal through private negotiations, not the pomp and ceremony of going to the White House,” he said.

Growing pressure

Carney won an election in April promising to be tough with Trump and secure a new economic relationship with the US.

Shachi Kurl, president of the Angus Reid Institute, said polls show Canadians have largely been willing to give Carney time to deal with Trump.

“But that amount of time is finite,” Kurl said, noting pressure may build with job losses mounting and economic growth hobbled by US tariffs.

Canada’s opposition leader, Pierre Poilievre, has criticised Carney’s approach to Trump, noting the prime minister’s earlier pledge to “negotiate a win” by July 21. He said on Monday that it did not look like Carney would accomplish much in the trip.

Dominic LeBlanc, the minister responsible for Canada-US trade, said in response that Canada has work to do on sectoral tariffs.

“Was the leader of the opposition suggesting that if the president of the United States invites us to go to Washington for a meeting and a working lunch, we should have just said ‘no’ and hung the phone up?” LeBlanc said in Parliament.

Asa McKercher, a specialist in Canada-US relations at St Francis Xavier University, said Carney’s meeting with Trump would be a success if there is any recognition that Canada has moved to address some of Trump’s persistent grievances.

UK prosecutors to appeal decision to dismiss Kneecap rapper ‘terror’ charge

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Prosecutors in the United Kingdom are appealing a court decision to throw out a “terrorism” charge against Liam O’Hanna, also known as Liam Og O hAnnaidh, a member of the Irish rap group Kneecap.

O’Hanna was accused of displaying a flag of the Iran-backed Lebanese armed group Hezbollah during a London concert in November, but the case was dismissed in late September by a London court on account of a technical error.

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“We are appealing the decision to dismiss this case as we believe there is an important point of law which needs to be clarified,” a spokesperson for the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) said on Tuesday.

The rapper, also known as Mo Chara (“my friend” in Gaeilge, the Irish language), was charged in May under the United Kingdom Terrorism Act, which states that it is a criminal offence to display an article in a way that arouses reasonable suspicion that someone is a supporter of a banned organisation.

On September 26, Chief Magistrate Paul Goldspring told Woolwich Crown Court that the case was “unlawful” and “null” since it had been brought outside the six-month statutory limit.

There was no immediate comment from Kneecap regarding the CPS’s appeal announcement. After the charges were thrown out last month, O’Hanna said the case had more to do with Gaza and “what happens if you dare to speak up” rather than “any threat to the public”.

“As people from Ireland, we know oppression, colonialism, famine and genocide. We have suffered and still suffer under ‘your empire’,” he said. “Your attempts to silence us have failed because we are right and you are wrong. We will not be silent.”

Northern Ireland First Minister Michelle O’Neill said at the time that the charges were “part of a calculated attempt to silence those who stand up and speak out against the Israeli genocide in Gaza”.

The members of Kneecap have been accused by some countries of promoting “terrorism” due to statements made in support of Palestinians during Israel’s war on Gaza.

Hungary and Canada have banned the group from entry, and some of the group’s concerts in Germany and Austria were cancelled this year.

Indonesia vs Saudi Arabia: AFC World Cup qualifier – teams, start

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Who: Indonesia vs Saudi Arabia
What: FIFA World Cup AFC qualifiers
Where: Alinma Bank Stadium at King Abdullah Sports City in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia
When: Wednesday, October 8, at 8:15pm (17:15 GMT)
How to follow: We’ll have all the build-up on Al Jazeera Sport from 5:15pm (14:15 GMT) advance of our live text commentary stream.

Indonesia face Saudi Arabia as the fourth round of Asian Football Confederation (AFC) qualifiers for the FIFA 2026 World Cup kick off on Wednesday, with six teams still hoping to book their places at the tournament in the United States, Canada and Mexico.

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The third round of qualifiers were completed in June, with six AFC teams confirming their qualification at that stage. The fourth round is not quite the last-chance saloon, however, with an intercontinental playoff still to come.

Al Jazeera Sport takes a look at the qualifier and how the last teams standing can still progress to global football’s showpiece event next year.

Why is Saudi Arabia staging the match with Indonesia?

Saudi Arabia and Qatar were named in June as the cohosts for the current, and brief, fourth stage of AFC qualifiers.

What is the format for the fourth round of AFC World Cup qualifiers?

The six teams that still have a chance of reaching the FIFA 2026 World Cup have been divided into two groups. Each team will play each other once, with the top team progressing directly to next summer’s tournament.

The teams that finish second will play a two-legged playoff, with the winner progressing to the intercontinental playoffs, which will be the final chance for teams around the globe to join those already qualified.

What are the fourth qualifying round AFC groups?

  • Group A: Qatar, United Arab Emirates, Oman
  • Group B: Saudi Arabia, Iraq, Indonesia

What are the dates for the fourth round of qualifiers and the playoffs?

The final group stage of AFC qualification for the FIFA 2026 World Cup runs from October 8 to 14, with Indonesia against Saudi Arabia and Oman against Qatar kicking off the process on Wednesday.

The home-and-away playoff matches for the runners-up will be played on November 13 and 18.

What is the full list of fixtures for the fourth round of qualifiers?

Wednesday, October 8:

  • Group A: Oman vs Qatar
  • Group B: Indonesia vs Saudi Arabia

Saturday, October 11:

  • Group A: United Arab Emirates vs Oman
  • Group B: Iraq vs Indonesia

Tuesday, October 14:

  • Group A: Qatar vs United Arab Emirates
  • Group B: Saudi Arabia vs Iraq

How did Indonesia fare in the third round of AFC qualifiers?

Indonesia finished fourth in Group C in the previous round of qualifiers, with Japan and Australia claiming the two automatic qualifying spots and Saudi Arabia finishing third. China and Bahrain were eliminated from the group.

Indonesia narrowly beat China 1-0 in their penultimate, and crucial, third-round match to ensure their place in the fourth round.

How did Saudi Arabia fare in the third round of AFC qualifiers?

Saudi Arabia had the chance to progress automatically for next summer’s World Cup in their final group stage match, but were beaten 2-1 by Australia, who in turn held second spot.

Abdulrahman Al-Obud opened the scoring in the match for Saudi Arabia, who needed an unlikely four-goal winning margin in the game to swing the goal difference in their favour.

What happened the last time Indonesia played Saudi Arabia?

Marselino Ferdinan scored both goals in a 2-0 home win for Indonesia against Saudi Arabia in the second match between the sides in the group.

The return fixture in Saudi Arabia ended in a 1-1 draw in September.

Indonesia must not be intimidated in Saudi Arabia

Patrick Kluivert has urged his Indonesia players not to be intimidated by the hostile atmosphere at a sold-out King Abdullah Sports City Stadium.

Indonesia are attempting to reach the World Cup for the first time since gaining independence from the Netherlands in 1949.

“I’m not afraid because if you’re afraid, you show your weakness,” said the former Barcelona and Netherlands striker. “If we show weaknesses, that gives the opponent strength.

“We know the power and the strength of Saudi Arabia, especially when they play at home, but we need to be focused. The mindset is the most important thing, to be calm in warm situations.

“We have to play two finals, so tomorrow is a final. Big expectations, of course. The importance is very high. We are representing a country of 280 million people, and we are ambassadors for the game.

“The most important thing is to be sharp in the match. We live towards this moment, not only us, but everybody backing us up is living for this moment.”

Saudi Arabia ready for revenge against Indonesia

Saudi coach Herve Renard is confident his team can put aside the disappointment of their previous results against the Indonesians to pick up a win that will move the country a step closer to a seventh World Cup appearance.

“I think we have made very good improvements since January, and we continue on our way,” he said.

“We are more confident, I think we are stronger than before. But let’s play, because the reality is on the field.”

Indonesia team news

The Indonesians will go into the game without first-choice goalkeeper Emil Audero and striker Marselino Ferdinan, who scored the goals in November’s win over the Saudis, while fellow forward Ole Romeny is also a doubt.

Saudi Arabia team news

Saudi Arabia will be led in attack by Salem Al-Dawsari, who has scored 25 times for his country.

Muhannad Al-Shanqeeti and Saad Al-Nasser are out with muscle and knee injuries, respectively, while Nawaf Al-Aqidi is a doubt due to a hamstring problem.

Indonesia predicted starting lineup

Argawinata; Ridho, Idzes, Hubner; Sayuri, Haye, Pelupessy, Verdonk; Vikri, Sananta, Kambuaya

Saudi Arabia predicted starting lineup