Montana Republicans are trying to censure a transgender legislator for castigating them about a bill banning gender-affirming care for minors

Story by mhall@businessinsider.com (Madison Hall) • Yesterday 


Montana Public Affairs Network© Montana Public Affairs Network

Democratic Montana Rep. Zooey Zephyr is the state's first openly transgender legislator.
She gave an impassioned speech on Tuesday admonishing Republicans for trying to ban gender-affirming care for children.
Following her speech, Montana's Freedom Caucus demanded Zephyr be censured.

A group of Republicans in Montana's House of Representatives are calling to censure state Rep. Zooey Zephyr for admonishing the legislature for attempting to pass a bill banning children from receiving gender-affirming care.

"If you are forcing a trans child to go through puberty when they are trans, that is tantamount to torture. This body should be ashamed," Zephyr said.

Following Zephyr's comments, Montana House Majority Leader Sue Vinton rose in opposition.

"I speak on behalf of our caucus. We will not be shamed by anybody in this chamber. We are better than that," Vinton said.

Related video: Republican-led state legislatures target gender affirming care (MSNBC)

Duration 7:19  View on Watch

The Washington PostHouse passes bill barring trans athletes in female sports

0:28

MSNBCHouse Republicans pass transgender school sports ban

2:12

KTVQ Billings, MTGianforte sends gender-affirming care bill back to Legislature

0:46

"If you vote yes on this bill, I hope the next time there's an invocation, when you bow your heads in prayer, you see the blood on your hands," Zephyr responded.

The GOP-led legislature passed the governor's requested amendments to the Youth Health Protection Act later Tuesday, barring children from receiving access to puberty blockers and other gender-affirming healthcare, though it hasn't been signed by Gov. Greg Gianforte just yet.

Later that day, the Montana Freedom Caucus took to Twitter, demanding Zephyr be censured "For attempting to shame the Montana legislative body and by using inappropriate and uncalled-for language during a floor debate over amendments concerning Senate Bill 99."

Additionally, the caucus also misgendered Zephyr, the first openly transgender member of the Montana legislature, in the letter.

House Minority Leader Kim Abbott, in a statement to the Helena Independent Record, admonished the Montana Freedom Caucus for disrespecting her colleague.

"The language used by the so-called Freedom Caucus, including the intentional and repeated misgendering of Rep. Zephyr, is blatantly disrespectful and the farthest thing imaginable from the 'commitment to civil discourse' that these letter writers demand. I find it incredibly ironic that these legislators are making demands of others that they refuse to abide by themselves," Abbott said.

Zephyr defended herself in a press release on Wednesday, standing by her comments.

"I stand by my accurate description of the devastating consequences of banning essential medical care for transgender youth," Zephyr wrote. "The recently passed Senate Bill 99 is part of an alarming trend of anti-trans legislation in our state."

Despite the Montana Freedom Caucus' call to censure Zephyr, there's yet to be an official vote on the matter, and it's unlikely a censure vote would pass — the Montana Free Press reported Abbott said there's a "zero percent chance" of it actually happening.

‘Nobody is left’: brutal fighting lays waste to wealthy central Khartoum

Story by Jason Burke and Zeinab Mohammed Salih in Khartoum • Yesterday 

On one street is a small cafe where diplomats, successful businesspeople and visiting dignitaries enjoyed smoothies and burgers under umbrellas set against the blistering sun. On another is a showroom for custom-designed kitchens imported from Europe, a once well stocked pharmacy and a fast-food joint. Down dusty potholed roads, there are villas behind high walls and apartment blocks where chandeliers hang above shining marble stairways.


Photograph: Marwan Ali/AP© Provided by The Guardian

These central Khartoum neighbourhoods, once the most sought-after addresses in Sudan’s capital city, are now so dangerous that residents cannot wait to flee. For almost a week, they have been the stage for a brutal power struggle, shattered by shelling, grenades and automatic rifle fire that trapped tens of thousands in their homes.

Some have managed to escape. On Thursday, people continued to stream out of central Khartoum and, to a lesser extent, the twin city of Omdurman across the Nile.

Omer Belal, a resident of Khartoum 2, a neighbourhood close to major ministries and the fiercely contested international airport, has sent his family to distant relatives in al-Hajj Yousif, on the eastern outskirts of the city.

“I could be the last person to leave. I am just waiting for the explosions to stop for a bit,” Belal said. “There was random artillery strike and my neighbour’s house was hit by a huge rocket. Entire neighbourhoods and the areas around us are empty … Nobody is left here.”

Nearly 300 people have been killed and thousands more injured since the fighting erupted on Saturday, according to numerous estimates. Medics say the true toll is likely to be much higher.

The conflict has pitted soldiers loyal to Gen Abdel Fattah al-Burhan, the head of Sudan’s transitional governing sovereign council, and the regular army against the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF), led by Gen Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo, known as Hemedti. Their power struggle has derailed a shift to civilian rule and raised fears of a long, brutal civil war.

Both came to power in 2019 after the fall of the dictator Omar al-Bashir, who had ruled for nearly 30 years. They then joined forces to marginalise civilians and crush the pro-democracy protest movement that had been crucial in the fall of the former regime. Now they have turned their guns on each other in an attempt to win uncontested control of Sudan’s precious resources and its crumbling but still powerful state.

Related video: Khartoum's residents search for safety and food as fighting enters fifth day (France 24) Duration 1:41  View on Watch

The wealthy neighbourhoods in the centre of Khartoum have suffered most in this brutal fight because they are closest to key strategic locations, such as the defence headquarters where Burhan is believed to have his command bunker, the presidential palace and the airport.

But the damage also has another cause. Hemedti and his fighters see themselves as underdog insurgents from Sudan’s margins who are taking on an establishment that has monopolised power and wealth for too long. The young men who fill the ranks of the RSF are recruited in Hemedti’s home region – distant Darfur, 530 miles (850km) to the south-west of the capital – and see the streets where they are now fighting as bastions of the political, cultural and economic elite that has paid them little or no attention.

So too does their commander.

“Bashir kept the relatively affluent elite onside and Burhan has been trying to do the same … Hemedti seems less interested in their support and seems unconcerned about collateral casualties or damage to their neighbourhoods,” said Dr Nick Westcott, the director of the Royal African Society and a professor of diplomacy at SOAS in London.

“The RSF soldiers have little to lose. They are experienced and tough fighters. The Sudanese armed forces are used to living in barracks, regular meals et cetera, so Hemedti feels confident he can prevail.”

Of those fleeing the centre of Khartoum, many have headed for Wad-Madani, a city 80 miles south-east of the capital, where thousands spent their first night in their cars on the streets

“People just took anything that was going on to the south of Khartoum and fled, whether on a lorry or a minibus … Many of us do not even have any cash,” said Majid Maalia, a human rights lawyer and former resident of Khartoum 2 whose apartment was hit by an airstrike shortly after he left on Thursday morning.

Turkey’s president, Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, on Thursday became the latest foreign leader to call for an end to the conflict, in separate phone calls with Burhan and Hemedti. But even a temporary truce seems a distant prospect and successive ceasefires have collapsed within minutes.

“There is no other option but the military solution,” Burhan told the television network Al Jazeera.

In 2019, Hemedti made a chilling promise to a crowd of supporters in northern Khartoum. Speaking days after his RSF forces had attacked and dispersed a peaceful pro-democracy sit-in in front of the military headquarters, killing more than 200 people, the warlord said that if the protests had continued for a month rather than just the three days, his men would have reduced Khartoum to a “ghost town” resembling those in Darfur depopulated by decades of conflict. “These expensive buildings … [would] only be inhabited by cats,” Hemedti said.

For Belal and other residents of what has now become a battleground, this vision has been realised and there is little hope of any return to pre-conflict normality even when the fighting eventually stops.

“If you survive the shooting, you will die with hunger,” he said. “This is an absurd war.”

New search underway for World War II shipwreck that poses pollution threat

Story by Emily Mae Czachor • Yesterday 

Scientists have resumed their search for the SS Norlindo, an elusive and potentially hazardous World War II shipwreck off the coast of Florida, for the third time in less than two years, officials said. This latest attempt to locate the sunken vessel, considered "the first casualty of WWII in the Gulf of Mexico," comes after previous expeditions led by an international team of oceanic explorers and archeologists in 2021 and 2022.

The SS Norlindo was a sprawling American steam freighter measuring 253 feet in length, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. It went down near the small island of Dry Tortugas, about 75 miles from Key West, on May 4, 1942, after being torpedoed by a German U-boat. Officials say the freighter sunk so quickly that five people on its 28-person crew could not escape, and the location of the wreck has remained a mystery ever since.

The most recent attempt to find the SS Norlindo is led by scientists at the University of Southern Mississippi, who ventured out on their research vessel Point Sur on April 14, for an expedition scheduled to wrap up this Saturday. Previous expeditions, led by a team of German, Italian and American scientists and archeologists, began with a three-week search toward the end of 2021. The same team returned for a second search in late January and early February of last year, NOAA said, but bad weather conditions ultimately hampered their efforts.

Although the SS Norlindo has not been found, those expeditions led scientists to identify "several magnetic anomalies" in the Gulf waters that they probed, which they believe could indicate the presence of a shipwreck. Explorers could not survey the designated search area in full during either of their past expeditions because of the early cancellations.


During the first expedition to search for SS Norlindo, scientists used autonomous underwater vehicle Eagle Ray to collect bathymetry and backscatter data to identify potential targets that may be the shipwreck. 

 Image courtesy of L. Macelloni via NOAA

The team involved in the newest search is using high-resolution side-scar sonar technology to reach areas of the potential wreck site that were left unexplored in previous years, according to NOAA.

"If promising targets are located, the team will conduct a successive expedition to deploy a remotely operated vehicle to visually determine if they have indeed found the wreck of this significant piece of our nation's history," the agency wrote in a statement.

In addition to its historical value, finding the SS Norlindo is potentially a matter of environmental importance, as the freighter could still have fuel barrels on board. While scientists cannot predict whether "an acute hazard is present" without seeing the shipwreck and its fuel contents, they have said that the presence of an "intact, but corroding fuel container" on the SS Norlindo could present serious pollution risks and pose threats to the surrounding marine microbiome.

Some estimates by the NOAA's Offices of Marine Sanctuaries suggest that the shipwreck, if intact, could be carrying as much as 5,000 barrels — or about 200,000 gallons — of fuel, the Miami Herald reported. A screening level risk assessment report compiled by that same branch of NOAA has determined that the SS Norlindo is one of 87 shipwrecks in U.S. waters that pose potential pollution threats linked to fuel contents on board the ships when they sunk, the agency said.

US, memory chipmaker Micron settle claim of immigration-related discrimination

Story by By Kanishka Singh • Yesterday 

 Illustration shows Micron logo© Thomson Reuters

WASHINGTON (Reuters) -The U.S. Justice Department said on Thursday it reached a settlement with memory chipmaker Micron Technology Inc to resolve an allegation of immigration-related employment discrimination.

"The settlement resolves the department's determination that Micron violated the Immigration and Nationality Act (INA) by discriminating against a U.S. citizen when it failed to hire him for a position and instead hired a temporary visa worker," the Justice Department said in a statement.

The investigation began when a U.S. citizen worker complained that Micron unfairly denied him employment because of his citizenship status.

The Justice Department said it determined that Micron unlawfully preferred a temporary visa worker for the position, failing to meaningfully consider the U.S. citizen's qualifications.

The company did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Micron will pay a civil penalty to the United States and offer back pay totaling $85,000 to the affected worker, according to the settlement details. The amount of the civil penalty was not specified in the Justice Department statement.

Micron will also need to train its staff on the anti-discrimination provision of the federal Immigration and Nationality Act, change its policies and procedures, and be subject to departmental monitoring for a two-year period, according to the settlement.

Earlier this week, the Justice Department reached a settlement with General Motors Co to resolve the department's allegation that the automaker discriminated against non-U.S. citizens.

The Justice Department also released a fact sheet on Tuesday to help employers avoid immigration-related discrimination.

(Reporting by Kanishka Singh in Washington; Editing by Aurora Ellis

Canada approves major west coast port expansion with 370 conditions

Story by By Nia Williams • Yesterday

(Reuters) - Canada approved a port major expansion on the coast of southern British Columbia on Thursday, while requiring the project meets 370 legally binding conditions designed to protect the environment and marine life.

The government said the Roberts Bank Terminal 2 Project, proposed by the Vancouver Fraser Port Authority, will be key to supporting Canadian economic growth and help prevent congestion in west coast ports.

More than C$275 billion ($204 billion) of trade passes through Vancouver Fraser Port Authority each year. The Roberts Bank expansion involves building a three-berth marine container terminal near the mouth of the Fraser river, and will increase the port's capacity by 50%.

Environmental campaigners have long opposed the project, arguing it will harm endangered species like chinook salmon and Southern resident killer whales.

"With 370 environmental protection measures that the port must meet, we have set a high bar for this project to proceed," Environment Minister Steven Guilbeault said in a statement, adding the federal government will invest in protecting endangered wildlife.

Conditions include installing infrastructure to allow for the safe passage of fish and noise level limits to protect killer whales.

2,000-year-old graves found in ancient necropolis below busy Paris train station

Story by CBSNews • Yesterday 

Just meters from a busy train station in the heart of Paris, scientists have uncovered 50 graves in an ancient necropolis which offer a rare glimpse of life in the modern-day French capital's predecessor, Lutetia, nearly 2,000 years ago.

Somehow, the buried necropolis was never stumbled upon during multiple road works over the years, as well as the construction of the Port-Royal station on the historic Left Bank in the 1970s.

However, plans for a new exit for the train station prompted an archaeological excavation by France's National Institute of Preventive Archaeological Research (INRAP), which covers about 200 square meters of land. The excavation revealed burials believed to be part of the Saint Jacques necropolis dating back to the 2nd century, the research institute said in a news release.

Camille Colonna, an anthropologist at INRAP, told a press conference that there were already "strong suspicions" the site was close to Lutetia's southern necropolis.

The Saint Jacques necropolis, the largest burial site in the Gallo–Roman town of Lutetia, was previously partially excavated in the 1800s.

However, only objects considered precious were taken from the graves, with the many skeletons, burial offerings and other artifacts abandoned.

The necropolis was then covered over and again lost to time.

The INRAP team discovered one section that had never before been excavated.

"No one has seen it since antiquity," said INRAP president Dominique Garcia.

Colonna said the team was also "very happy" to have found a skeleton with a coin in its mouth, allowing them to date the burial to the 2nd century A.D.

The excavation, which began in March, has uncovered 50 graves, all of which were used for burial -- not cremation, which was also common at the time.


One of the skeletons unearthed in an ancient necropolis found

 meters from a busy Paris train station.

 / Credit: Thomas Samson/AFP

Ferryman of Hades

The remains of the men, women and children are believed to be Parisii, a Gallic people who lived in Lutetia, from when the town on the banks of the Seine river was under the control of the Roman Empire.

The skeletons were buried in wooden coffins, which are now only identifiable by their nails

About half of the remains found during the recent excavation were buried alongside offerings, such as ceramic jugs goblets, dishes and glassware.

Sometimes a coin was placed in the coffin, or even in the mouth of the dead, a common burial practice at the time called "Charon's obol." In Greek mythology, Charon is the ferryman of Hades, and the coin was considered a bribe to carry the souls of the dead across the river Styx.

The archaeologists also found traces of shoes inside the graves. They identified them based on the remains of small nails that would have been used in the soles. Some of the dead appeared to have been buried with shoes on their feet, while others were seemingly buried with shoes placed on either side of the body inside the grave, according to INRAP.

Colonna said the shoes were placed "either at the feet of the dead or next to them, like an offering."

Jewelry, hairpins and belts were also discovered with the graves, while the entire skeleton of a pig and another small animal was discovered in a pit where animals were thought to have been sacrificed to the gods.

Unlike the excavation in the 1800s, this time the team plans to remove everything from the necropolis for analysis.

"This will allow us to understand the life of the Parisii through their funeral rites, as well as their health by studying their DNA," Colonna said.

Garcia said that the ancient history of Paris was "generally not well known," adding that the unearthed graves open "a window into the world of Paris during antiquity."

The messy, high-stakes world of private equity's fossil-fuel dilemma

Story by rungarino@businessinsider.com (Rebecca Ungarino) • Yesterday 

Getty Images; Alyssa Powell/Insider

Giants like Blackstone and Carlyle are aiming to cut emissions. But states' intense ESG division complicate the backdrop — all while firms stay in fossil fuels.

Most major private-investment firms are working to cut down on emissions their portfolio companies send into the atmosphere. Private-equity executives know they need to make these changes to win investor commitments, especially from the $5.2 trillion public-pension sector.

Efforts are underway at Blackstone, KKR, Carlyle, Apollo, and other private-equity heavyweights. They're moving quickly to profit from decarbonization as an investment theme, pushing into a crowded field of solar-panel suppliers and climate-data providers. The competition for seizing on these opportunities is fierce: annual global clean-energy investments need to triple to $4 trillion in the next few years to reach net-zero emissions by 2050, the International Energy Agency estimated.

This urgent, historic process is shaping up to be a messy undertaking. Private-equity firms, a growing, influential group flush with cash from investors allocating more money to private markets, risk angering a set of their clientele in Republican-led states if they see it as investing public-sector dollars through a lens that seems left-leaning.

Environmental advocates are meanwhile raising concerns that efforts by the industry, where firms sell companies after holding them for several years, may be in vain if they sell their assets to irresponsible buyers.

"The biggest challenges are directly coming from the different states," Josh Lichtenstein, a partner at the law firm Ropes & Gray who advises investors on pension regulation, told Insider.

"If you want to be able to manage money in red states and blue states and across the whole universe of institutional investors, then it can be pretty challenging to figure out how you thread the needle in describing what you are actually doing, what you've undertaken, and what you're willing to do for any particular investor — in a way that avoids any contradictions," he said.

Republicans have seized on anti-ESG rhetoric to rally their bases and frame climate-conscious investing as a boogeyman. Democrats are generally divided on whether to divest from oil and gas — or to focus on working with the oil-and-gas sector to reduce its emissions. Wall Street prefers the latter, prompting criticism from climate advocates pushing for divestment.

"We need to stay invested in conventional energy because that needs to be a part of the transition," Megan Starr, the global head of impact at Carlyle, which manages $373 billion in assets, told Insider. "One of the things we say a lot is that if you want to decarbonize the global economy, you have to go to where the carbon is."

Carlyle is in the process of collecting the first year's worth of data from its portfolio companies after the firm said in February 2022 that it would commit to reaching net-zero emissions across investments by 2050. It's also set targets to get three-quarters of its majority-owned power-and-energy portfolio companies' emissions that they generate directly and indirectly covered by Paris-aligned climate goals by 2025. Starr said that in the past year, about 20 additional portfolio companies, including the oil-and-gas companies Neptune and Varo, have set climate goals.

Last year, Apollo, which manages $548 billion in assets, committed to reducing median carbon intensity by 15% for new investments it controls in its flagship strategy. Meanwhile, KKR is working with some of its majority-owned businesses to implement plans to reach net zero by 2050, and Blackstone won't make new investments in companies involved in oil and gas production in two recently launched funds focused on the energy transition.

Characterizing the overall effectiveness of the private-equity industry's climate-crisis response relative to public-money managers is difficult because some firms have more robust decarbonization plans than others, with commitments all over the map, Andrew Howell, the director of investor influence at the Environmental Defense Fund, said.

"On one hand, private equity is in a very good position to put through action because they do have more influence," Howell said, pointing to advantages including board seats and a bigger say in business operations. "But the reality is that the private-equity industry has been slower to adopt a focus on these issues."

A growing number of private-equity firms' pension-fund limited partners are under pressure themselves to either invest around environmental, social, and governance matters or shun investing through those lenses altogether. States are drawing lines in the sand, complicating the way firms are communicating their strategies to investors

"Is there a strong risk-return case, standalone? Is it purely impact-oriented? Is it purely values-based or are they trying to hit two or three of those at the same time?" Rich Nuzum, the chief investment strategist at investment consultant Mercer, which advises pension plans and other large investors, said. "Because you don't want to get thrown out by a sophisticated investor in due diligence if they think you're one thing and they find out you're another."

As of mid-April, states have introduced 34 total divestment bills and actions overall, with six in effect, including some in New York, Maine, and Connecticut. According to Ropes & Gray, 23 are pending and in committee, and five have failed to pass.

But states have also introduced 85 total actions seeking to restrict ESG considerations from investment decisions. Currently, 24 are in effect in states including Florida, Arizona, and South Carolina; 49 are pending, and 12 failed to pass.


Campaigners held a rally in 2018 outside of then-New York State Comptroller Tom DiNapoli's office to pressure him to divest a state pension fund from fossil fuels.

 Erik McGregor/Getty Images

New York City said this month that as part of its plans to reach net-zero emissions by 2040 across two of its public-sector employee-pension plans, it would request that all of their private markets managers exclude upstream fossil-fuel investments, or those involved in the exploration and production of new oil and gas.

The New York City Employees' Retirement System and the New York City Teachers' Retirement System manage some $77 billion and $90 billion, respectively, as of December, each with roughly $8 billion in private-equity allocation. The plans have already divested from some $4 billion of public securities tied to fossil-fuel-reserve owners after announcing plans to do so in 2018.

The New York City Comptroller, Brad Lander, New York City's top finance official who had advocated for a bill that allows for pension plans to increase their private-markets allocations, has championed the net-zero effort that counts divestment as a key step. New York Governor Kathy Hochul signed that bill in December.

Lander's team gathered extensive feedback from asset managers in advance of the net-zero implementation commitment and took into consideration variables including the period of several years that private-equity managers typically hold their investments and what they could feasibly achieve during that time.

"Because we are getting more prescriptive, we really did have a lot of conversations with our managers to say, 'Our goal is to hit this 2040 net-zero goal, and we're externally managed, so that's only going to work if our managers are working with us,'" Lander said in an interview.

Divestment efforts in Maine offer another window into how a big pension plan is seeking to wind down fossil-fuel holdings. The state's $18.2 billion public-employees' retirement system, which had a $10 billion private-markets portfolio as of December, is now working through how it will divest from fossil fuels by 2026 after a law requiring it took effect in 2021.

Each private-equity giant has its own approach to walking this new fine line of trying to make its portfolios more environmentally friendly — and more likely to generate better returns in the long run because of it, they say as fiduciaries — while not alienating investors who might accuse them of making political decisions with their funds.

Firms' plans with their upstream investments tend to draw the most attention because they're involved in drilling for new oil and gas. "If you're a bank, and you continue to lend on expansion projects, if you're a private-equity firm and you continue to make new upstream investments — I don't believe you have a Paris-aligned plan, and the International Energy Agency says you don't have one," Lander said.

The private-equity giant KKR, whose upstream investments are largely within Crescent Energy, is invested in conventional energy through its infrastructure and energy-real assets businesses, Ken Mehlman, the global head of public affairs and the co-head of global impact at KKR, said.

Mehlman told Insider that by responsibly operating traditional energy assets, KKR "can contribute to producing better outcomes than if we exited the space — and therefore transferred emissions — to other operators who may not share our commitment to stewardship." By 2027, Crescent Energy aims to halve emissions its operations have directly caused as of its 2021 figures.

If you're a private-equity firm and you continue to make new upstream investments, I don't believe you have a Paris-aligned plan. New York City Comptroller Brad Lander

Carlyle's relationship with NGP, a Dallas-based energy-focused private-equity firm that Carlyle invested in with a non-controlling stake a decade ago, has drawn scrutiny from environmental advocates partly because of NGP's upstream investments. After the Private Equity Stakeholder Project published a report that criticized Carlyle and NGP's energy holdings last year, Carlyle told the nonprofit group in a letter, which Insider viewed, that it does not have a say in NGP's portfolio companies or operations. NGP has its own ESG considerations that it factors into the investment processes, with a particular focus on reducing emissions from its upstream and midstream oil-and-gas assets.

At Blackstone, the world's largest private-equity firm with some $991 billion of assets under management, about 1% of the firm's overall portfolio was invested in upstream companies at the end of 2022. The firm controls two oil-and-gas producers and about half of a coal plant, the James M. Gavin Power Plant in Ohio, and it has continued to invest in infrastructure such as natural-gas pipelines. In 2021 Blackstone started working toward a goal of cutting emissions by 15% at new investments where it controls the energy usage within three years.

"As fiduciaries, we believe we can create more resilient, valuable companies through effective energy management and reduced emissions. We also believe global decarbonization goals create compelling investment opportunities for private capital," a Blackstone spokesperson said.

Investors and environmental advocates are scrutinizing not just firms' current oil-and-gas holdings, but where those holdings go once private-equity managers sell them off after their investment periods. What falls into focus is whether the buyer has sufficient decarbonization plans. In January the Environmental Defense Fund, and Ceres, another major climate-focused nonprofit, published climate-related guidance for oil-and-gas dealmaking.

"If you have a management plan or decarbonization plan for an oil-and-gas field which you're selling, it goes without saying that you should be handing those over to the buyer and really encourage them to follow those plans," Howell said.

That additional scrutiny on dealmaking — core to the private-equity model — is one of the myriad challenges firms are grappling with now. Lichtenstein said he is advising clients such as asset managers to watch out for broad statements about how ESG principles are core to everything the firm does. "Those can then have to be walked back, potentially," he said, if a firm is in talks with a pension plan in a Republican-led state.

KKR is a large shareholder in Insider parent company Axel Springer.

This article is part of "The Great Transition," a series covering the big changes across industries that are leading to a more sustainable future. For more climate-action news, visit Insider's One Planet hub.

BY CRICKEY THATS GOOD NEWS

Rupert Murdoch's son Lachlan ends Australian defamation suit

CANBERRA, Australia (AP) — Fox Corp. chief executive Lachlan Murdoch on Friday dropped his defamation lawsuit against Australian news website Crikey, citing the Fox News settlement of a U.S. court case where the network agreed to pay almost $800 million over its lies involving the 2020 U.S. presidential election.



Media mogul Rupert Murdoch’s son filed the Crikey suit last August a day after executives at Crikey's publisher put their names to an ad in The New York Times inviting Lachlan Murdoch to sue to test the press freedom issue in court.

Murdoch's lawsuit targeted the publisher, Private Media, its then-managing editor Peter Fray, who was also the website’s editor-in-chief, and Crikey’s political editor, Bernard Keane.

Murdoch claimed he was defamed by Keane’s column about the U.S. congressional investigation into the Jan. 6, 2021, insurrection at the Capitol building which Crikey published in June last year under the headlines: “Trump is a confirmed unhinged traitor. And Murdoch is his unindicted co-conspirator.”

Murdoch’s lawyer John Churchill said in a statement he had filed a notice of discontinuance in Federal Court on Friday.

“Crikey has tried to introduce thousands of pages of documents from a defamation case in another jurisdiction, which has now settled," the statement said, referring to the Fox News settlement with Dominion Voting Systems that was announced Tuesday.

Related video: Blame Rupert Murdoch and Fox for Iraq, Trump, and The Big Lie (MSNBC)

Duration 24:32  View on Watch

“Mr. Murdoch remains confident that the court would ultimately find in his favor, however he does not wish to further enable Crikey’s use of the court to litigate a case from another jurisdiction that has already been settled and facilitate a marketing campaign designed to attract subscribers and boost their profits,” Churchill said.

Crikey’s lawyer firm Marque Lawyers welcomed the backdown.

“He’ll (Lachlan Murdoch) be up for Crikey’s legal costs. We and our client are well pleased,” the firm tweeted.

The Crikey suit had been set for a three-week hearing in Sydney starting Oct. 9.

Lachlan Murdoch had alleged the Crikey article conveyed a meaning that he illegally conspired with former President Donald Trump to “incite a mob with murderous intent to march on the Capitol" to prevent the transfer of power to President Joe Biden.

In its defense, Crikey had argued Lachlan Murdoch was “morally and ethically culpable” for the attack on the Capitol “because Fox News, under his control and management, promoted and peddled Trump’s lie of the stolen election despite Lachlan Murdoch knowing it was false."

The article did not name Lachlan Murdoch, but referred to “the Murdochs and their slew of poisonous Fox News commentators.”

Crikey attracts an audience of at least 175,000 unique readers a month and has at least 15,000 paid subscribers, according to court documents filed last year.

Rod Mcguirk, The Associated Press

U.S. bankruptcy judge halts 40,000 Johnson & Johnson talc and cancer lawsuits

Story by Annika Kim Constantino • Yesterday 

A federal bankruptcy judge halted roughly 40,000 of lawsuits alleging Johnson & Johnson's baby powder and other talc products caused cancer.

Judge Michael Kaplan put a temporary hold on the suits that will last through mid-June, The Wall Street Journal reported.

The decision is part of J&J subsidiary LTL Management's second attempt to settle talc cases in bankruptcy proceedings.


In this photo illustration, a container of Johnson and Johnson baby powder is displayed on April 05, 2023 in San Anselmo, California.© Provided by CNBC

A federal bankruptcy judge on Thursday halted roughly 40,000 lawsuits that allege Johnson & Johnson's baby powder and other talc products caused cancer.

The decision is part of J&J's second attempt to settle thousands of talc cases in bankruptcy proceedings.

J&J in 2021 spun off its subsidiary, LTL Management, to carry its talc-related liabilities and file for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protections.

Judge Michael Kaplan during a hearing Thursday in U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Trenton, New Jersey, put a temporary hold on the suits that will last through mid-June, The Wall Street Journal reported.

J&J won't have to go to trial over any other talc claims during the pause, but new lawsuits can still be filed against the company, The Journal reported.

Kaplan said during the hearing that J&J has an "uphill battle" ahead, according to the newspaper.

The pause will give J&J time to reach a permanent settlement with plaintiffs in the talc cases. The company recently proposed an $8.9 million settlement for current and future talc-related claims and said it expects to bring that plan to bankruptcy court in mid-May.

J&J in a statement called Kaplan' decision "a win for claimants" because it brings them "one step closer" to being able to vote on the proposed settlement.

The New Brunswick, New Jersey-based company also said it believes claimants will overwhelmingly support the proposal.

J&J previously said more than 60,000 claimants have already committed to voting in favor of the plan.

"When presented with a clear and complete explanation and the opportunity to make an informed choice, we firmly believe the claimants will approve the plan," said Erik Haas, J&J's worldwide vice president of litigation.

Kaplan's decision is narrower than the one he made after LTL Management first filed for Chapter 11 in 2021.

The judge ruled in February 2022 that J&J can use the bankruptcy system to resolve talc allegations, enabling the company to avoid fighting thousands of individual lawsuits.

Kaplan essentially affirmed J&J's use of a strategy known as the "Texas two-step," which allows companies to split valuable assets from liabilities through a so-called divisive merger.

But in January, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 3rd Circuit overturned that ruling. The appeals court said that neither LTL nor J&J had a legitimate need for bankruptcy protection because they were not in "financial distress."

Amid the ongoing legal fights, J&J has continued to deny the allegations that its talc products caused cancer.

Chief Financial Officer Joseph Wolk said on an earnings call Tuesday that it was "unfortunate" that J&J has to "put dollars towards quite frankly baseless scientific claims."

The suits allege J&J's talc products were contaminated with the carcinogen asbestos, which caused ovarian cancer in thousands of individuals.

Some lawsuits link several deaths to J&J's talc products.

US judge halts most talc lawsuits against J&J, stops trials

Story by By Mike Spector • Yesterday 


FILE PHOTO: Bottles of Johnson & Johnson baby powder line a drugstore shelf in New York© Thomson Reuters

NEW YORK (Reuters) - A U.S. judge on Thursday halted most of the tens of thousands of lawsuits alleging Johnson & Johnson’s baby powder and other talc products caused cancer and stopped any trials as part of a company subsidiary’s second attempt to settle cases in bankruptcy proceedings.

U.S. Bankruptcy Judge Michael Kaplan put most of the litigation temporarily on hold during a hearing in Trenton, New Jersey. The decision, for the most part, granted a request from J&J to freeze cases while it attempts to reach a permanent settlement with current plaintiffs that would also set aside money for future lawsuits.

J&J says it has broad support for a proposed $8.9 billion settlement, a contention disputed by lawyers representing talc claimants who oppose it.

The J&J subsidiary, LTL Management, filed for bankruptcy a second time earlier this month to help finalize the latest deal, despite a federal appeals court’s decision in January that invalidated its first Chapter 11 filing, on the grounds the J&J unit was not in financial distress.

“I have more questions than answers,” Kaplan said during Thursday's court hearing, referring to arguments made to him about the second bankruptcy case earlier this week.

The judge halted roughly 38,000 talc lawsuits consolidated in a federal district court in New Jersey. He allowed other cases to proceed as long as no trials commence.

He said he would revisit the ruling in late May.

Erik Haas, J&J’s worldwide vice president of litigation, in a statement called the ruling “a win for claimants” and expressed confidence they would ultimately approve the proposed settlement.

LTL Management argued that allowing litigation against J&J to continue would imperil current settlement efforts. J&J previously used a complex legal maneuver, known as a Texas two-step, to shift responsibility for the lawsuits to LTL.

Leigh O’Dell, one of the lead lawyers for plaintiffs in cases consolidated in the New Jersey federal court, said prohibiting trials limits pressure on J&J.


Related video: J&J talc unit asks judge to halt cancer lawsuits as it pursues $8.9 bln settlement (WION)  Duration 1:12  View on Watch

“We continue to believe that this bankruptcy effort is illegitimate … and that stance will be affirmed through the appellate process,” she said in a statement.

The judge’s ruling kept in legal limbo consumers alleging J&J talc caused their ovarian cancer or mesothelioma. Some plaintiffs allege asbestos in the talc sickened them. For now, none can test their claims before juries.

J&J has said its talc is safe, asbestos-free and does not cause cancer.

The healthcare conglomerate has not filed for bankruptcy itself. In October 2021, J&J divided its consumer business in two and offloaded the talc lawsuits onto a newly created subsidiary, LTL, which then declared bankruptcy.

In January, the 3rd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Philadelphia invalidated LTL's bankruptcy filing. Kaplan dismissed the bankruptcy earlier this month, only for LTL to file for Chapter 11 again in his court about two hours later.

'UPHILL BATTLE'

Talc plaintiffs opposing J&J's proposed settlement plan to file a motion to dismiss the second bankruptcy filing, one of their lawyers said in court on Tuesday.

They portray J&J’s actions as an abuse of the bankruptcy system by a multinational conglomerate valued at more than $400 billion and in little danger of running out of money to pay cancer victims.

A U.S. Department of Justice official charged with monitoring the case has also pushed back against the second bankruptcy.

“Undoubtedly, the debtor has an uphill battle,” Kaplan said, referring to LTL’s settlement and reorganization prospects.

J&J and its subsidiary have argued bankruptcy delivers settlement payouts more fairly, efficiently and equitably than a “lottery” offered by trial courts, where some litigants get large awards and others nothing.

Jim Murdica, a lawyer tasked with resolving talc cases for J&J, testified in a deposition last weekend that as many as 80,000 claimants support the company’s settlement offer - enough to meet a bankruptcy threshold requiring agreement from 75% of all claimants, he said.

Lawyers representing opposing talc plaintiffs contend those figures reflect mostly unfiled claims and that people behind them have not yet agreed to the settlement. J&J and LTL argue their settlement process is typical.

LTL terminated a funding agreement with its parent company that the appeals court found insulated it from the financial distress necessary to legitimately declare bankruptcy.

Its lawyers now argue that new financing agreements leave LTL Management in financial distress. At the same time, they contend the agreements provide enough funds to pay plaintiffs and avoid rendering LTL insolvent, countering arguments from plaintiffs' lawyers that the transactions were fraudulent.

(Reporting by Mike Spector; Editing by Bill Berkrot)

MP Han Dong sues Global News for defamation over foreign meddling allegations

Story by The Canadian Press • Yesterday

OTTAWA — Toronto MP Han Dong is suing Global News and its parent company, Corus Entertainment, over stories he says portrayed him as a "traitor" and a knowing participant in Chinese interference in Canada.


MP Han Dong sues Global News for defamation over foreign meddling allegations© Provided by The Canadian Press

The statement of claim, provided by his lawyers and filed Thursday with the Ontario Superior Court in Toronto, accuses Global News of publishing "false, malicious, irresponsible, and defamatory" stories that have "destroyed … Dong's hard-earned reputation and career."

In March, Global published a story citing unidentified security sources who alleged Dong told a Chinese diplomat in February 2021 that releasing Michael Kovrig and Michael Spavor would benefit the Conservatives.

The two Canadian men at that time had been detained in China since December 2018, just over a week after the RCMP arrested Huawei executive Meng Wanzhou in Vancouver on a U.S. extradition warrant.

Global had previously published allegations that Dong benefited from Chinese foreign interference in his successful bid to become the Liberal candidate for his riding in 2019, which is also included in the lawsuit.

The Canadian Press has not independently verified the allegations.

Shortly after the allegations about his conversation regarding Kovrig and Spavor were published, Dong resigned from the Liberal caucus to sit as the Independent MP for Don Valley North.

He told the House of Commons he would defend himself against "absolutely untrue claims." The next day, he voted with opposition parties in favour of a public inquiry into foreign meddling in Canada's elections.

Rishma Govani, a spokeswoman for Global News and Corus Entertainment, said in an email Thursday night that she was unable to provide further comment, but referred to an earlier statement.

"Global News is governed by a rigorous set of Journalistic Principles and Practices. We are very mindful of the public interest and legal responsibility of this important accountability reporting," she wrote.


Dong, whose statement of claim has not been tested in court, also wants Global to remove the stories and broadcasts.

The statement of claim, which names several Global News reporters and editors as defendants, alleges the media outlet acted "irresponsibly" in the way it reported and wrote the stories.

"These allegations were made by anonymous sources whose credibility and reliability were assumed, rather than vigorously tested," said the statement of claim.

It also says that Dong won a "hard-fought race" for the 2019 Liberal nomination and followed all election rules.

The statement claims that Global did not review a transcript or recording of the February 2021 conversation between Dong and Han Tao, the Chinese consul general in Toronto, which is at the heart of the allegations.

It says that while Dong does not have notes from that telephone call, in which he and Tao were both speaking Mandarin, "he is certain that he did not (and would never) advocate for the continued arbitrary detention" of the two Canadians.

"The defendants knew or ought to have known that the call took place in a specific cultural context and in Mandarin," the statement says. "There was an obvious risk that Canadian intelligence 'sources' could have interpretative challenges in this context."

China's Toronto consulate has described the allegations reported by Global regarding the February 2021 call as "utterly groundless.''

Dong's statement of claim says there were three other conversations with Chinese diplomats between 2020 and 2021 in which Dong pushed for their release.

It also said that Dong's conversations with the Chinese consul general and other diplomats were taking place in the context of helping his constituents, many of whom are Chinese Canadian, or as part of his role as co-chair, along with Quebec Sen. Paul Massicotte, of the Canada-China Legislative Association.

He also said he would sometimes seek guidance from the Global Affairs Department ahead of these conversations and "from time to time" share notes from his calls with the department.

The Prime Minister's Office has previously said it was unaware of the February 2021 conversation between Dong and Tao until the MP informed the office about it after receiving questions from the media.

The Globe and Mail reported in March, citing an unnamed source, that the PMO had reviewed a transcript of the conversation provided by the Canadian Security Intelligence Service and concluded there was "no actionable evidence."

This report by The Canadian Press was first published April 20, 2023.

MP Han Dong seeking $15M in defamation suit against Global News

Story by Darren Major • CBC - Yesterday 

MP Han Dong is seeking $15 million in damages from Global News over articles alleging he was a "witting" participant in a Beijing-backed foreign interference network.

The statement of claim, provided by Dong's legal team, accuses Global of publishing "a series of false, malicious, irresponsible and defamatory," stories about the MP.

Last month, Global published a story alleging Dong advised a senior Chinese diplomat in February 2021 that Beijing should hold off on freeing Michael Kovrig and Michael Spavor, the two Canadians being held by China at the time.

The story quotes two anonymous national security sources who alleged that Dong told China's consul general Han Tao in Toronto that releasing the men would benefit the Conservatives.

In a February story, Global News cited anonymous sources who alleged national security officials gave an urgent briefing to senior aides from Prime Minister Justin Trudeau's office in 2019 "warning them that one of their candidates was part of a Chinese foreign interference network."



Michael Spavor, left, and Michael Kovrig were released from detention in China in September 2021.© Colin Hall/CBC, Chris Helgren/Reuters

The statement of claim says that both articles are "false and defamatory" and that Global acted "irresponsibly" in its reporting.

"These allegations were made by anonymous sources whose credibility and reliability were assumed, rather than vigorously tested," the statement reads. It also says Global failed to provide enough context about the sources' jobs or seniority.

The lawsuit names a number of Global reporters, including the author of the two stories in question. Dong is also asking that the articles and associated broadcasts be retracted and removed from Global's website.

"The defendants… have maliciously destroyed Han Dong's hard-earned reputation and career and have exposed Dong and his family to a campaign of hateful messages and threats," the statement of claim says.

Dong said last month he planned to take legal action against Global. Sonia Verma, editor-in-chief of Global News, said then that Global "is governed by a rigorous set of journalistic principles and practices. We are very mindful of the public interest and legal responsibility of this important accountability reporting."

A spokesperson for Global said on Thursday they had no further comment.

Dong stepped down from the Liberal caucus last month to sit as an Independent, saying he would work to clear his name.