Jun 22, 2017

Drug overdoses kill as many Americans as three wars combined

Chris Post / AP

In a new column from NYT's Nick Kristoff, harrowing stats about America's opioid epidemic: "About as many Americans are expected to die this year of drug overdoses as died in the Vietnam, Iraq and Afghanistan wars combined." Kristoff explores how "drug overdoses are now the leading cause of death for Americans under 50," and what America is doing about it.

The numbers:

"Last year, there were more than 236 million prescriptions written for opioids in the United States — that's about one bottle of opioids for every American adult."
"It should be a national scandal that only 10 percent of Americans with opioid problems get treatment."
"A Times investigation published this month estimated that more than 59,000 Americans died in 2016 of drug overdoses, in the largest annual jump in such deaths ever recorded in the U.S."

Go deeper

Axios

Updated 13 mins ago - Politics & Policy

Coronavirus dashboard

Illustration: Sarah Grillo/Axios

Global: Total confirmed cases as of 8 p.m. ET: 18,185,015 — Total deaths: 691,303 — Total recoveries — 10,836,439 — Map.
U.S.: Total confirmed cases as of 8 p.m. ET: 4,711,323 — Total deaths: 155,366 — Total recoveries: 1,513,446 — Total tests: 57,543,852 — Map.
Politics: White House will require staff to undergo randomized coronavirus testing — Pelosi says Birx "enabled" Trump on misinformation.
Sports: 13 members of St. Louis Cardinals test positive, prompting MLB to cancel Tigers series — Former FDA chief says MLB outbreaks should be warning sign for schools.
1 🎥 thing: "Tenet" may be the first major film to get a global pandemic release.

Go deeper (<1 min. read)

Rebecca Falconer

Updated 40 mins ago - Energy & Environment

In photos: Thousands evacuated as Southern California fire grows

A plane makes a retardant drop on a ridge at the Apple Fire north of Banning in Riverside County, which "doubled in size" Saturday, per KTLA. Robert Gauthier / Los Angeles Times via Getty Images

A massive wildfire that prompted mandatory evacuations in Southern California over the weekend burned 26,450 acres and was 5% contained by Monday afternoon, the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection said.

The big picture: As California remains an epicenter of the coronavirus pandemic in the U.S., some 15 separate fires are raging across the state. About 7,800 people were under evacuation orders from the Apple Fire, about 75 miles east of Los Angeles, as hundreds of firefighters battled the blaze. CalFire said Monday that a malfunction involving a "diesel-fueled vehicle emitting burning carbon from the exhaust system" started the Apple Fire.

See photos (<1 min. read)

Orion Rummler

2 hours ago - Technology

Twitter faces FTC fine of up to $250 million over alleged privacy violations

Photo: Rafael Henrique/SOPA Images/LightRocket

The Federal Trade Commission has accused Twitter of using phone numbers and emails from its users to make targeted ads between 2013 and 2019, Twitter said in an SEC filing published Monday.

Why it matters: Twitter estimates that the FTC's draft complaint, which was sent a few days after its Q2 earnings report, could cost the company between $150 million and $250 million. The complaint is unrelated to the recent Twitter hack involving a bitcoin scam.

Go deeper (<1 min. read)