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US sues Walmart for alleged role in opioid crisis

The US Department of Justice has accused Walmart of helping fuel America's opioid crisis.

In a lawsuit filed on Tuesday, prosecutors said American retail giant Walmart filled hundreds of thousands of questionable prescriptions, "knowingly" violating vetting rules and fuelling the country's opioid crisis. We get the latest from Wall Street Journal Justice Department reporter Sadie Gurman. The US Congress has passed a long-awaited $900bn package of coronavirus pandemic aid. Diane Schanzenbach, director of the Institute for Policy Research at Northwestern University in Chicago, tells us whether the aid bill is likely to be effective. Also in the programme, in light of a case reaching the US Supreme Court which examines whether multinationals should be held accountable for the working conditions of people in other countries who help make their products, the Βι¶ΉΤΌΕΔ's Mike Johnson reports on the global chocolate industry, and the plight of some cocoa workers, both children and adults, who have been trafficked across borders. Plus, we find out how the pandemic has impacted ticket sales for the world's biggest lottery, El Gordo, which was drawn today in Spain.

(Picture: a sign for a pharmacy is posted at a Walmart store. Picture credit: Getty Images.)

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27 minutes

Last on

Tue 22 Dec 2020 22:32GMT

Broadcast

  • Tue 22 Dec 2020 22:32GMT