U.S. government says verdict in Bayer's Roundup case should be reversed

'SAY IT IN GERMAN, SAY IT IN BROKEN ENGLISH'

FILE PHOTO: Logo and flags of Bayer AG are pictured outside

 a plant of the German pharmaceutical and chemical maker

 in Wuppertal, Germany August 9, 2019. 

REUTERS/Wolfgang Rattay/File Photo

(Reuters) - The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and the Justice Department said a federal appeals court should reverse a lower court verdict finding Bayer AG liable in the case of a California man who blamed its Roundup weed killer for his cancer.

The government said in a friend of the court brief filed on Friday that glyphosate, the weed killer’s active ingredient, is not a carcinogen and as a result a warning on the label was not required as California state law demands.

The backing by the EPA and Justice Department comes days after Bayer asked a U.S. federal appeals court to throw out a $25 million judgment it was ordered to pay Edwin Hardeman. Bayer had denied its Roundup weed killer causes cancer.


In April, the EPA reaffirmed that glyphosate does not cause cancer.

Farmers spray glyphosate, the most widely used herbicide in U.S. agriculture, on fields of soybeans and other crops that are genetically engineered to resist it. Roundup is also used by consumers on lawns, golf courses and elsewhere.

Hardeman’s lawyers previously accused Roundup maker Monsanto, which Bayer acquired last year in a $63 billion deal, of having failed to warn consumers about the herbicide’s cancer risk. Bayer stock has lost about 23% in value since the first Roundup verdict for plaintiffs in August 2018.


Bayer argued it would be impossible to comply with the Hardeman verdict, a lawsuit brought under state law, because any warning label would be in conflict with guidance from a federal agency.

The EPA and Justice Department agreed in their Friday filing. “It is unlawful for manufacturers and sellers to make claims on their labels that differ from what EPA approves,” the U.S. government said.


Reporting by Maria Ponnezhath and Ben Klayman; Editing by Leslie Adler

U.$. $teel delivers unwelcome Christmas surprise to Michigan town

US STEEL PLAYS SCROOGE 
WORKERS AND THE TOWN SHOULD SEIZE THE MEANS OF PRODUCTION BEFORE SCROOGE 
STRIPS THEM

Rajesh Kumar Singh
CHICAGO (Reuters) - The mayor of a Michigan steel town was attending his grandchildren’s Christmas play Thursday evening when he got an unwelcome voicemail from an official of the town’s top employer: United States Steel Corp (X.N).



FILE PHOTO: An entrance to the U.S. Steel Great Lakes Works plant is seen in Ecorse, Michigan, U.S., September 24, 2019. REUTERS/Rebecca Cook/File Photo

U.S. Steel was about to send out a press release announcing layoffs for 1,545 workers and the idling of a significant portion of operations at the Great Lakes Works facility, according to the voicemail received by Michael Bowdler, mayor of River Rouge, a city of 7,500 that sits on the Detroit River roughly 10 miles south of Detroit.

In the voicemail to Bowdler, heard by Reuters, the U.S. Steel official called the layoffs “terrible news” and attributed the decision to weak demand, lower steel prices and new corporate strategy.

Domestic steel prices, after rising in the immediate aftermath of tariffs imposed by President Donald Trump on steel imports, have fallen amid weakening demand from the auto and other manufacturing sectors.

In the 2016 presidential election, Trump won Michigan by less than 11,000 votes. But with its factories shedding thousands of jobs, the state is seen as up for grabs in the 2020 election.

Steel production at Great Lakes Works will stop around April 1 and the hot-strip mill rolling facility will cease operations before the end of next year, U.S. Steel said in its statement released on Thursday. Production will be shifted to Gary Works in Indiana, the statement added.

The latest layoffs, which would impact 94% of the Michigan facility’s workforce, come months after U.S. Steel decided to temporarily lay off 48 employees at Great Lakes Works and warned of up to 200 more layoffs.


The Great Lakes plant primarily serves the automotive industry. It is the lifeline of the cities of Ecorse and River Rouge, which house the plant.

Local officials had worked out a deal to give tax breaks to the company for a $600 million investment to carry out upgrades at Great Lakes Works. They thought the investment was the company’s commitment to stay invested in the towns.

In September, a U.S. Steel spokeswoman told Reuters that the incentives would help preserve jobs in the region.

After Thursday’s developments, Bowdler did not know whether the tax deal would be put before the city council for approval.

U.S. Steel told Reuters on Friday that its discussions with the two cities about the tax deal were “paused” earlier this year.

Bowdler said the company’s move will result in a $1 million hit on the city’s finances and could also dampen the business of its retailers.

U.S. Steel’s new strategy to ramp up investments at three mills in North America - Mon Valley plant in Pennsylvania, Gary Works in Indiana and Big River Steel in Arkansas, which the company expects to fully acquire within the next four years - had thrown into doubt the future of the Michigan plant.


Martin Englert, a steel industry analyst for brokerage firm Jefferies LLC, called the idling of Great Lakes an “incremental positive” for the company.

U.S. Steel’s stock closed down Friday about 11% at $11.91 as the company announced a dividend cut and forecast a wider-than-expected loss in the fourth quarter. The company’s shares have plunged 75% since March 1, 2018, when Trump announced his decision to crack down on foreign steel imports.

Prices of hot-rolled coil are down 41% from their 2018 peak, hurting the profits of American steel companies. U.S. Steel, which saw a record profit in 2018 on soaring steel prices, reported a loss in the latest quarter on slowing demand.


Reporting by Rajesh Kumar Singh; Editing by Caroline Stauffer and Leslie Adler

'Not for the faint of heart:' Critical landing test ahead for Boeing Starliner

FILE PHOTO: The Boeing CST-100 Starliner spacecraft, atop a ULA Atlas V rocket, lifts off for an uncrewed Orbital Flight Test to the International Space Station from launch complex 40 at the Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Cape Canaveral, Florida December 20, 2019. REUTERS/Thom Baur

Joey Roulette
(Reuters) - The Boeing Co Starliner spacecraft that failed in its mission to reach the International Space Station was due to barrel down to the Earth’s surface early on Sunday with the daunting task of landing safely.

Boeing (BA.N) and NASA officials said they still do not understand why software caused the unmanned craft to miss the orbit required to rendezvous with the space station following its successful launch on Friday.

All efforts were now focused on ensuring the Starliner touched down in White Sands, New Mexico, without any problems.

“Entry, descent and landing is not for the faint of heart,” Jim Chilton, senior vice president of Boeing’s space division, said in a Saturday conference call with reporters. “Make no mistake, we still have something to prove here on entry.”

In one of Boeing’s most complex and crucial safety demonstrations required by NASA to eventually fly humans, the capsule will fire a suite of thrusters and later deploy three parachutes to slow down its violent descent from 25 times the speed of sound entering the atmosphere to land harmlessly on the white sands of New Mexico.

Boeing said the Starliner’s first window to land would be at 5:57 a.m. Mountain time (7:57 a.m. ET; 1257 GMT).

The CST-100 Starliner astronaut capsule was successfully launched from Florida on Friday, but an automated timer error prevented the spacecraft from attaining the correct orbit for it to meet and dock with the space station.

GRAPHIC: Space missions - here

NASA and Boeing officials said during the Saturday conference call that they were surprised extensive testing before the flight did not turn up any issues.

The Starliner’s debut launch to orbit was a milestone test for Boeing. The company is vying with SpaceX, the privately held rocket company of billionaire high-tech entrepreneur Elon Musk, to revive NASA’s human spaceflight capabilities. SpaceX carried out a successful unmanned flight of its Crew Dragon capsule to the space station in March.

The Starliner setback came as Boeing sought an engineering and public relations victory in a year punctuated by a corporate crisis over the grounding of its 737 MAX jetliner following two fatal crashes of the aircraft. The company’s shares dropped 1.6% on Friday.

The implications for any further design and testing requirements before Starliner is approved for its first crewed mission also remained unclear. The prospect that Boeing might need to repeat an unmanned orbital test flight could substantially delay NASA’s timeline and drive up costs.

If successful, Sunday’s landing will mark the first time a U.S. orbital space capsule designed for humans landed on land. All past U.S. capsules, including SpaceX’s Crew Dragon, splashed down in the ocean. Russia’s Soyuz capsules and China’s past crew capsules made land landings.

The now-retired Space Shuttle glided in like a plane.

BOEING STARLINER FAILS TO HIT ORBIT

(Reuters) - The Boeing Co Starliner spacecraft that failed to hit the right orbit to reach the International Space Station is healthy, in a stable orbit and expected to land in New Mexico on Sunday morning, NASA said.

Boeing’s (BA.N) CST-100 Starliner astronaut capsule was successfully launched from Florida on Friday, but an automated timer error prevented the spacecraft from attaining the correct orbit for it to rendezvous and dock with the space station.

NASA and Boeing officials said on a Saturday conference call they are still investigating the cause of the failure and that they were surprised extensive testing before the flight did not turn up any problem.

The spacecraft’s challenges were not over, they said.

“Entry, descent and landing is not for the faint of heart,” said Jim Chilton, senior vice president of Boeing’s space division. “Make no mistake, we still have something to prove here on entry tomorrow.”

The Starliner’s debut launch to orbit was a milestone test for Boeing, which is vying with SpaceX, the privately held rocket company of billionaire high-tech entrepreneur Elon Musk, to revive NASA’s human spaceflight capabilities. SpaceX carried out a successful unmanned flight of its Crew Dragon capsule to the space station in March.

The Starliner setback came as Boeing sought an engineering and public relations victory in a year punctuated by a corporate crisis over the grounding of its 737 MAX jetliner following two fatal crashes of the aircraft. The company’s shares dropped 1.6% on Friday.


The implications for any further design and testing requirements before Starliner is approved for its first crewed mission also remained unclear. The prospect that Boeing might need to repeat an unmanned orbital test flight could substantially delay NASA’s timeline and drive up costs.

Chilton said on Saturday that the plan now is for Starliner to return to Earth early Sunday morning at White Sands, New Mexico, about a week ahead of schedule.

LIFT-OFF

The spacecraft, a cone-shaped pod with seats for seven astronauts, lifted off from Cape Canaveral before dawn on Friday atop an Atlas V rocket supplied by Boeing-Lockheed Martin Corp’s (LMT.N) United Launch Alliance.

Minutes after launch, Starliner separated from the two main rocket boosters, aiming for a link-up with the space station some 254 miles (409 km) above Earth. But problems with Boeing’s autonomous software caused the capsule to incorrectly sense what orbit it was in so that it fired the wrong thrusters for longer than necessary, burning too much of its fuel, too soon.

NASA and Boeing tried to manually correct the automated errors, but mission control commands sent across NASA’s satellite communications network were delayed because Starliner was in the wrong position in space.

Friday’s test represented one of the most daunting milestones required by NASA’s Commercial Crew Program to certify a capsule for eventual human spaceflight - a long-delayed goal set back years by development hurdles at both Boeing and SpaceX.


The U.S. space agency awarded $4.2 billion to Boeing and $2.5 billion to SpaceX in 2014 to develop separate capsule systems capable of ferrying astronauts to the space station from U.S. soil for the first time since NASA’s space shuttle program ended in 2011. NASA has since relied on Russian spacecraft for hitching rides to the space station.

Chilton said Friday’s failure would not dissuade Boeing from sticking to its quest to win the right to provide NASA’s astronaut capsules, saying, “We’re in, it’s as simple as that.”


Reporting by Joey Roulette in Orlando, Florida, writing by Brad Brooks; Editing by Scott Malone, Steve Orlofsky and Sonya Hepinstall