Monsanto Parent loses Roundup lawsuit

A jury in Georgia has ordered Monsanto parent Bayer to pay nearly $2.1 billion in damages to a man who says the company’s Roundup weed killer caused his cancer, according to attorneys representing the plaintiff.

The verdict marks the latest in a long-running series of court battles Monsanto has faced over its Roundup herbicide. The agrochemical giant says it will appeal the verdict, reached in a Georgia courtroom late Friday, in efforts to overturn the decision.

The penalties awarded include $65 million in compensatory damages and $2 billion in punitive damages, law firms Arnold & Itkin LLP and Kline & Specter PC said in a statement. That marks one of the largest verdicts in a Roundup-related case to date.

Plaintiff John Barnes filed his lawsuit against Monsanto in 2021, seeking damages related to his non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma. Arnold & Itkin attorney Kyle Findley, the lead trial lawyer on the case, said the verdict will help put his client in a better position to get the treatment he needs going forward.

Germany-based Bayer, which acquired Monsanto in 2018, has continued to dispute claims that Roundup causes cancer. But the company has been hit with more than 177,000 lawsuits involving the weedkiller and set aside $16 billion to settle cases.

Trump team eyes privatizing Fannie, Freddie

The Trump administration is considering an executive order on housing that may push for the privatization of home loan giants Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, the Wall Street Journal reported.

Federal Housing Finance Agency Director Bill Pulte and Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said privatization efforts would need to consider mortgage rate impacts, the Journal noted. The potential directive could task federal departments with exploring this initiative.

The White House said in a statement to the Journal that industry leaders “have responded to President Trump’s America First economic agenda of tariffs, deregulation, and the unleashing of American energy with trillions in investment commitments that will create thousands of new jobs.”

Speculation has grown about the fate of the so-called government-sponsored enterprises in recent days.

Bessent last week said the government’s stakes in Fannie and Freddie could eventually become part of the proposed U.S. sovereign wealth fund.

Judge restricts DOGE Treasury access

A federal judge blocked the Department of Government Efficiency from accessing personal information for millions of U.S. union members at the Treasury and Education departments.

The Monday ruling by U.S. District Judge Deborah Boardman in Maryland extends a temporary restraining order she entered a month ago and expands it to apply to Treasury as well as Education and the federal Office of Personnel Management. She said the union members were likely to succeed in arguing that the government violated U.S. privacy laws by giving DOGE-affiliated employees access to the records.

Her order comes as the Trump administration is trying to persuade another federal judge in New York to partially lift limits on Treasury data access she imposed on a DOGE-affiliated staffer.

Boardman said that the Trump administration failed to show why those staffers needed union members’ Social Security numbers, bank information and other sensitive data to fulfill a mandate to “modernize technology.”

Compiled from Associated Press and Bloomberg reports.