OBS Group Nearing Deal for Bayer Pharma Assets in Pakistan, Sources Say


Faseeh Mangi
Wed, July 5, 2023 



(Bloomberg) -- Pakistan’s OBS Group is nearing a deal to acquire pharmaceutical assets in the country from Bayer AG, according to people familiar with the matter.

The Karachi-based pharmaceutical maker is close to buying a manufacturing facility in Lahore and 12 pharmaceutical brands for about 7 billion rupees ($25 million), said one of the people, asking not to be identified as the information is private. OBS Group has incorporated a new unit that is partially owned by employees for the acquisition, they said. The transaction could close in the coming days, the people said.

Following the Bloomberg News report, shares of AGP Ltd., a subsidiary of OBS Group that also manufactures and markets pharmaceuticals, climbed to their highest level in five months.

Bayer is in the process of transferring its pharmaceutical and consumer health manufacturing plant based in Lahore, as well as selected pharmaceuticals and consumer health brands, to an international diversified company with a strong presence in Pakistan, according to a statement in response to a query from Bloomberg News. Impacted Bayer Pakistan employees have already joined the acquirer with effect from July 1, with a two-year job guarantee and bonuses, the statement showed.

Bayer representatives declined to comment on the name of the buyer or size of the transaction. Representatives for OBS didn’t respond to requests for comment.

The development comes as the South Asian nation is going through its worst economic crisis, with record interest rates and sky-high inflation. Shell Plc, one of the oldest multinational companies with operations in Pakistan, is also selling its stake in its local unit, while Sanofi divested majority ownership of its local arm last year for about $23 million.

Read More: Pakistan’s Politics Seen Key to Deliver on New IMF Aid Program

Drug prices in Pakistan are fixed and regulated by the government, which pharmaceutical companies have cited as a hurdle to their operation in the country.

--With assistance from Naomi Kresge.

ABOLISH SCOTUS

Federal agency powers in the crosshairs at the US Supreme Court


Andrew Chung and John Kruzel
Tue, July 4, 2023 

Court's conservatives skeptical toward agency powers


Cases involve securities and consumer protection agencies

WASHINGTON, July 4 (Reuters) - Even as it has ushered in sweeping changes to American law and society - on abortion, gun rights and affirmative action - the U.S. Supreme Court has kept tabs on another issue of keen interest to its conservative majority: keeping federal regulatory power in check.

The issue will figure prominently during the court's next term, which begins in October, as the justices already have agreed to decide several cases that could curtail the authority of U.S. agencies to issue regulations and enforce laws in areas ranging from finance to fisheries.

The cases involve what has come to be known as the "administrative state," the agency bureaucracy that interprets laws, crafts federal rules and implements executive action. The court's conservatives, with a 6-3 majority, in recent years have reined in what they viewed as governmental overreach by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and other agencies.

"Next term is going to be a huge one at the court for cases involving the administrative state," said Brianne Gorod, chief counsel at the Constitutional Accountability Center liberal legal group. "These cases all represent challenges that are part of a long-running, multifaceted conservative attack on the administrative state, and nothing less than the ability of the federal government to function effectively is at stake."

The court, in a summer recess after ending its last term on Friday, has agreed to hear in its coming term cases challenging the constitutionality of the funding structure for the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) and the in-house enforcement regime at the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). It also could overturn a decades-old precedent that helps federal agencies defend their regulatory actions in court.

Legal experts see potential trouble ahead for the agencies.

"It's harder for the court to rule that the agency's composition or funding mechanism is unconstitutional without declaring a lot of what the agency has done to be illegal," said Jonathan Adler, a professor at Case Western Reserve University School of Law in Cleveland.

The court's conservatives have proven willing to make vast changes to the law. Last year, they ended the recognition of a woman's constitutional right to abortion and expanded gun rights. Last week, they rejected affirmative action policies used by many universities to boost Black and Hispanic student enrollment and allowed certain businesses to refuse services for same-sex weddings.

They also last week blocked President Joe Biden's student debt relief plan and in May embraced a stringent new test for declaring wetlands protected under a landmark anti-pollution law - rulings that limited the role of the U.S. government's executive branch and curtailed its regulatory power.

PAYDAY LOANS

In the upcoming CFPB case, the justices will hear the agency's appeal of a lower court's ruling that its funding mechanism violated a constitutional provision giving Congress the power of the purse. The case involves a lawsuit by trade groups representing the payday loan industry against the agency that enforces consumer financial laws.

In the latest legal attack on the SEC, the financial markets regulator, the justices will hear a Biden administration appeal of a lower court's decision striking down the agency's enforcement proceedings as a violation of the constitutional right to a jury trial. The case involves a hedge fund manager who the SEC found committed securities fraud.

The court will also weigh a challenge by New Jersey-based fishing companies to a federal regulation requiring commercial fishermen to help fund a program monitoring herring catches off New England's coast. The companies asked the court to overturn its own precedent that calls for judges to defer to federal agency interpretation of U.S. laws, a doctrine called "Chevron deference."

For the conservative justices, cases such as these often raise a central concern: the constitutional principle of separation of powers among the U.S. government's executive, legislative and judicial branches.

"This is a court that is very interested and comfortable with separation-of-powers cases and is very interested in opining on it," said attorney Sarah Harris, an administrative law expert who has argued cases before the justices.

The court's embrace of the "major questions" doctrine has provided a seismic shift in its approach toward agency power. This judicial approach gives judges broad discretion to invalidate executive branch actions of "vast economic and political significance" unless Congress clearly authorized them.

The court's conservatives this year invoked the doctrine to invalidate Biden's student debt relief and last year to curb EPA authority to reduce carbon emissions from power plants. In a dissent in the student loans ruling, liberal Justice Elena Kagan called the doctrine "made-up."

University of Texas law professor Thomas McGarity, a critic of the doctrine, said the court's approach is diminishing "the agencies to which Congress has assigned the responsibility for protecting people, for protecting the environment and for protecting consumers."

(Reporting by Andrew Chung in New York and John Kruzel in Washington; Editing by Will Dunham)

AMBERGRIS
A professor trying to solve the death of a beached sperm whale ended up discovering 21 pounds of whale-vomit worth half a million dollars

Matthew Loh
Wed, July 5, 2023 

A sperm whale and two young ones swimming under the surface, on November 10, 2011 in Mauritius Island, Indian Ocean.Alexis Rosenfeld/Getty Images

A university professor investigating the death of a beached sperm whale found $544,000 of ambergris.

The digestive substance is extremely rare, and highly valued in the perfume market.

The professor said he wants to sell the ambergris and give the profits to the town he found it in.

A scientist in the Canary Islands discovered a 21-pound lump of whale vomit worth around $544,000 in the intestines of a beached sperm whale.

Antonio Fernández, a professor from the University of Las Palmas, was inspecting the dead sperm whale at Nogales beach on May 21 when he found a huge clump of ambergris in it, per reported local news outlet Canarias7.

Ambergris is a rare and highly sought-after secretion produced in the digestive systems of sperm whales, and is typically only found in around one out of 100 specimens. It's valued in the perfume industry for its distinct odor and scarcity, and is often called "floating gold" or the "treasure of the sea."

Scientists believe the substance is excreted by sperm whales when they eat cephalopods, such as squid and octopus, and cannot digest the beaks of their prey. These remains are often vomited out, but sometimes they can mix with a waxy substance in the intestines to produce ambergris.

Fernández told Canarias7 that he was investigating the cause of death for this particular sperm whale, and was checking its colon.

"What I took out was a stone about 50 to 60cm in diameter weighing 9.5 kg," he said, according to The Guardian. "The waves were washing over the whale. Everyone was watching when I returned to the beach but they didn't know that what I had in my hands was ambergris."

Fernández, who's also the director of his university's animal health and food safety institute, said the whale died of sepsis caused by the chunk of ambergris, per The Guardian.

The professor also told Canarias7 on June 20 that he planned to give the valuable lump to local authorities in La Palma, so that it could be sold to help those affected by a devastating volcano eruption in 2021.

In 2021, a group of fishermen in the Gulf of Aden scored a hunk of ambergris worth around $1.5 million, which they sold to a buyer in the United Arab Emirates. The 35 fishermen purchased houses, cars, and boats from their profits, the BBC reported.

Commercial trade of ambergris is strictly regulated in some countries, including Australia and the US, which bans trade of the substance over concerns of exploitative whaling.

PRIVATIZATION

ROMANIA

Templeton-Led Fund Raises Record $1.8 Billion in Hydropower IPO

Irina Vilcu and Andra Timu
Tue, July 4, 2023 



(Bloomberg) -- Franklin Templeton-managed Fondul Proprietatea raised 8.1 billion lei ($1.8 billion) in Romania’s largest ever initial public offering and this year’s biggest share sale in Europe.

About 78 million shares, or 17.3%, in green energy producer Hidroelectrica SA will be sold at 104 lei each in the IPO, close to the middle of the indicated range, according to a regulatory statement on Wednesday. Fondul has 30 days from when the shares start trading on the Bucharest Stock Exchange July 12 to decide whether to sell more or even its entire stake of almost 20% in the firm.

The proceeds of Europe’s biggest public offering since Porsche AG will go directly to Fondul’s coffers and are likely to be distributed to shareholders. Hidroelectrica, Romania’s biggest electricity producer, is poised to gain from the increased visibility and potential new funding opportunities for its ambitious renewable energy investments.

The boost in liquidity following the listing may help the Bucharest Stock Exchange secure a long-awaited upgrade by MSCI to emerging-market status. The sale of a minority stake in the company also fulfills one of the milestones in Romania’s recovery and resilience plan, helping to unlock €29 billion ($31.5 billion) in European Union funding.

Like other energy producers in Europe, Hidroelectrica saw revenue jump last year as Russia’s invasion of Ukraine triggered a spike in power prices. The company’s net income rose about 45% year-on-year to roughly 4.5 billion lei. Its profit rose 34% in the first quarter of this year to 1.7 billion lei, according to data released by Fondul.

To be sure, energy producers are likely to start feeling the pinch when prices stabilize as EU governments step up support for consumers. Still, Hidroelectrica’s dividend policy, which envisages returning 90% of profits to shareholders and even potential extraordinary payouts, may increase the stock’s attractiveness.

The offer comes close to the record eastern European share sale, held by Poland’s Allegro.eu SA, which raised $2.3 billion in 2020. It’s this year’s biggest IPO in Europe, topping a $663 million offering by Italian gaming operator Lottomatica Group SpA.

Hidroelectrica shares were initially guided to be sold between 94 and 112 lei each, before the range narrowed to 103-104 lei this week. According to the initial terms of the offering, it was expected to raise as much as 8.7 billion lei for the 17.3% stake.

--With assistance from Mark Sweetman and Alexandra Muller.

French Insurance Lobby Says Cost of Riots Is $305 Million So Far

Alexandre Rajbhandari
Tue, July 4, 2023 


(Bloomberg) -- French insurers have so far received around 5,900 claims worth a total of some €280 million ($305 million) resulting from damage caused during a week of riots following the police shooting of a teenager.

This compares with 10,000 claims for a cost of €205 million during the last major riots in late 2005, Florence Lustman, chair of French insurers’ lobby France Assureurs, said at a financial forum in Paris on Tuesday.

Finance Minister Bruno Le Maire said earlier that insurers agreed to extend the delay for store owners to make damage claims resulting from the violence to 30 days from five and that they would consider reducing the deductibles on claims for those independent businesses worst hit.

EV batteries remain major challenge for insurers - UK's Thatcham

Nick Carey
Tue, July 4, 2023 

An electric car is charged at a roadside EV charge point, London

LONDON (Reuters) -A lack of data on electric vehicle (EV) batteries continues to challenge insurers who are forced to scrap EVs after mild accidents, potentially undermining EV adoption, Thatcham Research said on Wednesday.

The British automotive risk intelligence company cited a "concerning lack of affordable or available repair solutions and post-accident diagnostics" in a report entitled "Impact of BEV Adoption on the Repair and Insurance Sectors" the UK Government's innovation agency Innovate UK funded to examine differences between EVs and fossil-fuel models.

Insurers have complained that many EVs have no way to repair or assess even slightly damaged battery packs after accidents, forcing them to write off cars with low mileage - leading to higher premiums and undercutting gains from going electric.

Batteries can make up half of an EV's cost and Thatcham found a replacement battery can cost more than the used price of the vehicle after only one year, making replacing them uneconomical.

Adrian Watson, Thatcham's head of engineering research, said in an ideal world insurers could make informed decisions about whether to repair EVs or write it off based on access to data on its state of health after an accident.

"The reality is that's not the situation we're in at the moment," he told Reuters. "The diagnostics we have do not enable you to really know what the status of the battery is."

In a statement Mike Hawes, CEO of British industry group the Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders (SMMT) said the car industry is "keen to engage with insurers to understand their challenges and ensure vehicles involved in an accident are properly assessed – rather than being written off by default - and the majority repaired and returned safely to the road."

Only around 1.65% of cars on Britain's roads are electric, but Thatcham said EV-related insurance claims are already 25.5% more expensive than for fossil-fuel equivalents and take 14% longer to repair.

Due to their potential fire risk, damaged EVs awaiting repair must be stored outside at least 15 metres (49 ft) from other objects.

An outside facility for 100 fossil-fuel cars today would have space to safely quarantine just two EVs, Thatcham said.

(Reporting by Nick Carey; Editing by Josie Kao and Louise Heavens)

‘Seeing the faces made it real’: Generations of Chinese Canadians reflect on new Vancouver museum

Story by The Canadian Press 

Firecrackers popped as lion dancers rippled and tossed lettuce through the doorway of Vancouver’s historic Wing Sang Building. The crowd outside 51 East Pender St. cheered as they snapped photos with their phones.

They gathered to witness the official opening of the Chinese Canadian Museum on Canada Day, 100 years after the Chinese Immigration Act of 1923, also known as the Chinese Exclusion Act. This legislation banned Chinese migration until 1947, effectively separating families or ending family lines for almost a quarter of a century.

The museum’s feature exhibition ‘The Paper Trail to the 1923 Chinese Exclusion Act’ displays hundreds of certificates of identity documents used to track Chinese Canadians already in the country, including ones born here. Prior to the outright ban of Chinese immigration, the Canadian government tried to discourage migrants from China with costly head taxes.

“Seeing the faces in the exhibit made it real,” said exhibition guest Lily Yee.

Yee came from Toronto with her siblings, Jean and William, because their father was connected to this history — he paid the head taxes and had an ID document used to track him. Yee, her siblings, and their spouses had been invited to a preview event a day before the museum opened.

As the siblings moved through the space, they felt different waves of emotions, Jean said. Initially, there was amazement as they learned about the politics of the time and how anti-Asian racism grew out of racist policies. Moving through the exhibits, the Yee siblings felt sadness as they witnessed how isolated men struggled trying to reconnect with family members and community.

Jean said she felt fortunate and thankful that their dad, Wai Bun (Ben) Yee, didn’t pass on any of the pain or shame he felt to them. But, she said, the culture back then probably did not allow for people to speak out against injustices.

“Our dad never talked about it,” Jean said.

When Wai Bun passed away in 1975, the siblings received all his belongings and did not really know much about it except a lot that looked like immigration paperwork. They didn’t learn about the significance of these papers until three years ago when they received a call about the 1923 identification certificates and later contacted the museum’s feature exhibition curator Catherine Clement.


Lily said her friends had mixed feelings about whether to wish her a happy Canada Day because July 1 also marks “Humiliation Day” due to the Chinese Exclusion Act.

“I am proud to be a Canadian,” Lily said. “Thinking about the history, we [the Yee siblings] live lives that honour that sacrifice.”

William said their parents would’ve wanted that. “They don’t want us to hold that grudge,” he added.

More than a hundred attendees joined the Yee siblings, flowing in and out of the Chinese Canadian Museum on July 1. A basket of wrapped fortune cookies — which, ironically, is a Japanese invention popularized and frequently served in Chinese restaurants across North America — sat by the door.

Steven Yau, one of the attendees, said he came to see the exhibition because he wanted to learn about the immigrants who came before him. Yau felt it was overdue because, to him, Chinese Canadian history had not been documented and presented as extensively as other community groups.

“I came [to Canada] before my parents came here, but in the exhibit, it’s the opposite,” said Yau, referring to his journey moving to Canada from Hong Kong at age 17 and bringing his parents over to join him years later.

Yau also took his two biracial teenage sons to the museum to learn more about this heritage and better understand the context of who they are.

“I think they didn’t identify as part-Chinese when they were younger,” Yau said.

Unlike other museums, Yau found the Chinese Canadian Museum to be noisy.

“Maybe it’s the acoustics but you can hear when others are talking. It echoes,” he said. “When I thought about it, it was appropriate because Chinese [people] are noisy.”

Deanna Cheng, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter, New Canadian Media

LA REVUE GAUCHE - Left Comment: Search results for INTERNMENT 

Ottawa urged to look into best before date system in bid to reduce grocery waste

The Canadian Press
Tue, July 4, 2023



Canadians' misunderstanding of best before dates could be contributing to excess food waste and, in turn, food insecurity, experts say as a government committee urges Ottawa to examine the issue.

A report on grocery affordability from a House of Commons committee on agriculture and agri-food includes arguments that Canada do away with best before dates due to the widespread misconception that they indicate whether a product is safe to consume.

Experts say all they indicate is when a product is past its peak freshness.

"There's a lot of confusion around what food labels mean," Kate Parizeau, a professor at the University of Guelph who studies food waste, said Tuesday.

"A lot of people think that best before dates are expiry dates, when there are actually very few products in Canada that have a proper expiry date."

Generally, the only foods with an expiry date are those that have a specific nutritional requirement that could degrade over time, such as baby formula. Best before dates, on the other hand, are required on foods that are expected to go bad within 90 days.

Food manufacturers and processors tend to slap them on all sorts of products, though, Parizeau noted, and they are of limited utility.

"I think many people have this idea that before dates are determined by scientists in a lab measuring how many days until a product goes bad," she said.

"That's not how it works. It's something that the government tells manufacturers that they themselves have to figure out in-house, so it's a bit of a black box."

Parizeau encouraged consumers to learn more about food safety so they can determine for themselves whether groceries are spoiled.

"We're so disconnected from our food sources. We don't know when the product was picked. We don't know how long it's supposed to stay good," she said.

"So if somebody puts peppers into cellophane and puts a sticker on them, we're like, 'OK, this is meaningful. I can trust whatever is put on the sticker.' In part, because we don't understand how that decision came about either."

Lori Nikkel, the CEO of Second Harvest Canada, is quoted in the government report saying that best before dates encourage people to throw out "perfectly good food" when many go hungry because of rising costs.

"Eliminating best-before dates would prevent safe, consumable food from being thrown out and save Canadians money on their grocery bills," she said in the report released last month, which recommends the government investigate "how the elimination of 'best-before' dates on foods would impact Canadians."

Michael von Massow, an expert in food labeling who also teaches at the University of Guelph, said he's in favour of doing away with the labels.

"Because they are so misinterpreted, I think there's some real value in getting rid of them," he said.

Von Massow said the extent to which food waste drives up cost is not clear, though it stands to reason that it plays some role by reducing the supply and increasing demand for groceries.

"If we were throwing out less stuff, we would save money in our households, even if prices didn't change," von Massow said.

"So I think there's an argument that prices could change if we threw less of some products out. But even if it didn't change, if we threw less stuff out, our grocery budget would go down."

The suggestion that the government study the potential effects of removing best before dates is one of 13 in the report.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published July 4, 2023.

Nicole Thompson, The Canadian Press

Ottawa suspends advertising on Facebook, Instagram as Meta promises to block news

OTTAWA — Heritage Minister Pablo Rodriguez says the federal government will stop advertising on Facebook and Instagram.

The decision comes after both Meta promised to block Canadian news content on its Facebook and Instagram platforms in response to Canada's recently passed Online News Act.

The new law will require tech giants pay media outlets for content they share or otherwise repurpose on their platforms.

Rodriguez says the decision from Meta, which is already blocking content for some users as part of a test that began before the bill passed, is "unreasonable" and "irresponsible" and as a result Canada will stop advertising on their platforms.

Google has also promised to start blocking Canadian news when the bill comes into force in six months, but Rodriguez says the government is in talks with the company and believes their concerns will be managed by the regulations that will come to implement the bill.

Rodriguez was joined at a press conference today by MPs from both the Bloc Québécois and the NDP, which both backed the legislation.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published July 5, 2023.

The Canadian Press

UNESCO reaffirms threats to Wood Buffalo National Park; calls for action on oilsands

A United Nations body has affirmed earlier findings that Canada's largest national park remains under environmental threats from dams, oilsands development and climate change.

The UNESCO report, issued Friday, concludes that the vast Wood Buffalo National Park on the Alberta-Northwest Territories boundary shouldn't lose its place on the list of World Heritage Sites at this time. Some things in the park, such as whooping crane numbers, are improving.

But it adds that about half of what makes the park a special place is deteriorating, mostly because of water quality and quantity.

"Major concerns remain about the lack of progress in addressing cumulative impacts from industrial developments around the property," the report says.

"Expansion of existing oilsands projects has continued without full consideration of the potential impacts."

The report is the latest step in UNESCO's ongoing examination of concerns originally expressed by the Mikisew Cree First Nation almost a decade ago. A report was filed in 2016 that found impacts from the Bennett Dam upstream in B.C., oilsands development and climate change had radically changed the amount and quality of water in the park, making it hard, if not impossible, for First Nations users to practise their treaty rights.

In 2018, Ottawa developed a plan to revive the park and Friday's report was an assessment of how well it's working.

"Important progress has been made in the implementation of some parts of the action plan," it says. "It is unrealistic to expect a reversal of trends in the desired outcomes in this short time frame."

Of 15 objectives for the park, UNESCO says two are improving, five are stable and seven are deteriorating.

"The (outstanding universal values) of the property remains highly threatened, with continued negative trends for key attributes," it says.

The report says a better understanding on the effect the Bennett Dam has had on water flows is needed. No future dams, such as the Amisk project, should go ahead without those studies, it says.

Five of the report's 17 recommendations pertain specifically to threats posed by the oilsands, upstream of the park.

It calls on Canada to conduct an independent risk assessment of the threat posed by oilsands tailings ponds "urgently and before the end of 2024."

"The mission notes that some representatives from Alberta continue to question the need for such an assessment arguing that the current management systems to address impacts were sufficient."

Environmental monitoring of the oilsands needs reform, the report says.

As well, reclamation plans for the industry's extensive tailings ponds must be developed that don't threaten the park.

"The mission is further very concerned about current proposals to allow for the release of treated (oilsands process water) into the Athabasca River."

And any new developments must be considered in the light of the industry's cumulative impacts.

A response from the federal government wasn't immediately available.

In a release, Gillian Chow-Fraser of the Canadian Parks and Wilderness Society said the report was timely, given recent concerns about releases of oilsands tailings.

"Industrial activities next to our major water sources, like the Peace River and Athabasca River, bear unacceptable costs – and we’re losing Alberta’s world-renowned heritage because of it.”

This report by The Canadian Press was first published July 4, 2023.

Bob Weber, The Canadian Press