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NBA's Gregg Popovich blasts 'rampant' racial injustice in US society

San Antonio Spurs head coach Gregg Popovich criticized the U.S. for its “rampant” racial injustice at a social justice summit on Saturday.

“I live in a country I did not know exists,” Popovich said, according to a video posted on Twitter.

“I knew there were racists, I understand that, but I had no idea it was to this level, and that the injustice and the seeking of power was so rampant that we are in the position we’re in now,” he added.

“I don’t have the answers, but it pisses me off, it hurts me, it confounds me, and I wonder where the hell do I live.”

Popovich has regularly spoken out about social justice issues during his time as one of the NBA’s top coaches.

Following the mass shooting at a Texas elementary school that claimed 21 lives in May, he denounced state lawmakers’ inaction on gun legislation.

The inaugural Social Justice Summit this weekend, organized by Jay Z’s entertainment agency Roc Nation in partnership with the United Justice Coalition, brought attention to criminal justice reform and other issues disproportionately affecting the Black community.

Popovich made an unannounced appearance to award Innocence Project co-founder Barry Scheck for his contributions to criminal justice reform.

The Innocence Project is an organization that seeks absolve incarcerated individuals, many of whom are Black, of crimes for which they were wrongly convicted.

Popovich praised Scheck for his role in exonerating a total of 375 wrongly incarcerated people since the foundation of the Innocence Project.

Source: TEST FEED1

Equilibrium/Sustainability — Cognitive effects of lead exposure may be reversible

Lead exposure in early childhood is known to cause severe cognitive impairment into adolescence, but new research suggests that these effects may be reversible. 

The study, published in Scientific Reports on Monday, investigated how providing animals with stimulating environments early in life can reverse the vast majority of genetic changes that result from lead exposure. While the research so far is limited to rodents, these findings could provide hope to parents whose children were unwittingly exposed to lead early on in life.  

“Children who live in housing stock built before 1978, the year in which lead was banned as an ingredient in paint, are at high risk of being exposed to lead,” Jay Schneider, a professor of pathology, anatomy and cell biology at Thomas Jefferson University, said in a statement. 

That exposure can come from lead dust or from peeling lead-containing paint in their homes, according to Schneider, who said that at least half a million U.S. children have blood lead levels at or above amounts that can impact cognitive function.  

Probing whether it is possible to counteract these effects, Schneider and his colleagues separated lead-exposed rats into two different housing conditions: Ones that were enriched with social activity and ones that lacked stimulation.  

They ultimately found that 80 percent of the genetic changes induced by lead exposure were reversed in the group of rats that lived in the enriched environment until day 55 — the equivalent of adolescence in humans. Those rats living in the nonenriched environment showed memory deficits that the other animals did not experience, according to the study.  

“By providing an enriched early life environment, the adverse effects of lead on the brain may be minimized or potentially reversed, emphasizing how important early childhood interventions may be,” Schneider said.

Welcome to Equilibrium, a newsletter that tracks the growing global battle over the future of sustainability. We’re Saul Elbein and Sharon Udasin. Send us tips and feedback. Subscribe here.

Today we’ll start in California, where officials are contending with a raging wildfire near Yosemite National Park. Then we’ll explore potential contributors to the monkeypox emergency and look at why deserts conditions are expanding.

Thousands flee as fire explodes near Yosemite

A wildfire raging near Yosemite National Park forced the evacuation of thousands of residents over the weekend, prompting California Gov. Gavin Newsom (D) to declare a state of emergency just a day after announcing a set of ambitious climate goals.

Countywide emergency: Newsom issued a state of emergency for Mariposa County on Saturday due to the impacts of the Oak Fire.  

• The governor’s office said the fire had destroyed homes, threatened critical infrastructure and led to the evacuation of 3,000 residents. 
• At the time of the declaration, the blaze had burned more than 11,500 acres — a figure that grew to 16,791 acres by Monday morning, according to Cal Fire.  
• The fire was 10 percent contained on Monday. 

Fires made worse by climate change: The fire erupted Friday, with officials on Saturday describing “explosive fire behavior,” according to The Associated Press. 

Experts have said that climate change is intensifying droughts in areas like the southwest U.S. and making wildfires worse, as we previously reported.  

Paying the price: Cal Fire Battalion Chief Jon Heggie described the Oak Fire as “a direct result” of climate change, according to CNN.  

“You can’t have a 10-year drought in California and expect things to be the same,” Heggie continued. “And we are now paying the price for that 10-year drought and that climate change.”

NEWSOM RAISES CLIMATE GOALS

Newsom’s emergency declaration came less than a day after he launched new statewide climate targets for renewable energy, clean buildings, carbon removal and clean fuels. 

“California communities experience the devastating impacts of climate change every day,” he said in a statement. “We need to supercharge our efforts to significantly reduce harmful carbon pollution.” 

Achieving climate goals: The governor called for the state to provide the tools necessary to achieve its 2030 climate goals, as well as state carbon neutrality no later than 2045, in a letter sent the chair of the California Air Resources Board. 

In his state budget proposal in January, Newsom allocated $22.5 billion for combatting the climate crisis over the next five years. In May, he revised the figure to add another $9.5 billion. 

Accelerating the transition: On Friday, the governor announced that he would be accelerating the state’s clean energy targets while working with the legislature “to enshrine carbon neutrality into state law,” according to his office. 

• Among the new targets was a planning goal of at least 20 gigawatts of offshore wind by 2045.  
• This goal in particular — which would be the largest such target of any state — was met with the approval of green groups in the state. 

Fulfilling state and national needs: Advocacy group Environment California said in a statement that 20 gigawatts of offshore wind is enough to power 14.5 million homes, or more than a third of California’s energy needs.  

That quantity would also fulfill a sizable chunk of President Biden’s goal of generating 110 gigawatts of wind by 2050 nationwide, the statement added. 

Far-reaching climate goals: Newsom also expressed support for 3 million climate-friendly homes by 2030 and 7 million by 2035, as well as 6 million heat pumps installed by 2030. 

• As part of the transition away from fossil fuels, the governor suggested establishing a 20 percent clean fuels target for the aviation sector.  
• He also voiced support for the creation of a task force to identify methane leaks from oil infrastructure near communities. 

To learn about Newsom’s other targets and hear community reactions, please click here to read the full story.   

Monkeypox a burgeoning health emergency: officials

The World Health Organization (WHO) declared monkeypox a public health emergency over the weekend. 

That announcement represents a significant ramp-up in concern by both U.S. and international public health authorities around the burgeoning viral epidemic. 

It’s also a serious warning about the risk of global epidemics amid a changing climate.

Suddenly shifting circumstances: There are now 16,000 reported cases across
75 countries, the WHO found.

• Those numbers represent a marked change from last month, when the agency concluded that “the outbreak did not represent a public health emergency of international concern.” 
• At the time, there were only about 3,000 cases across 47 countries.

A map of U.S. monkeypox incidences, published by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDD), identified nearly 3,000 cases as of Friday. 

Kindling urgency: On Sunday, Rep. Adam Schiff (D-Calif.) called on the Biden administration to increase its response to the virus — particularly around vaccine access, our colleague Olafimihan Oshin reported for The Hill. 

• “We really don’t know the future course of this virus. But what we do now, early on, just as was the case with the pandemic, will determine just how bad this may get,” Schiff said. 
• The congressman said he has been getting reports from his district of “people lining up to get vaccinated and they don’t have the vaccines for them,” according to CBS’s “Face The Nation.” 

In June, public health experts told NPR that the testing situation was “abysmal.”

FAILURE OF CONTROL

One possible factor among others in the sudden spread of monkeypox is climate change, according to a study published last week in Nature Reviews Microbiology.

• Historical data suggest that monkeypox outbreaks often occur in fall during periods of increased rainfall and flooding, the authors found. 
• Along with flooding, deforestation could also drive animal hosts that carry monkeypox into human communities, according to the study.  

A broader problem: The spread of monkeypox, like COVID-19, is representative of a broader threat of new infectious diseases emerging as a result of deforestation and climate change, The Week reported.

Around 10,000 viruses with the potential to infect humans are currently circulating in the wild, an April study in Nature found.

• As more land is needed to feed more people, the expansion of human activity into wild lands puts more people into contact with animals and those 10,000 viruses, according to The Week.
• The Nature researchers predicted that different species would transmit viruses to each other at least 4,000 times by 2070 — raising the risk of new viral strains jumping to humans. 

Coronaviruses — including the SARS CoV-2 strain that caused the COVID-19 pandemic — are particularly prone to cross-species transmission, according to a 2021 study in Frontiers in Public Health. 

For more resources, check out the World Health Organization’s comprehensive guide to monkeypox here.

Desert conditions may define temperate regions

Climate change is making historically wet and temperate areas behave more like deserts, a new study has found.

• By the end of the century, an additional global area about twice the size of the United States would experience soil temperatures and moisture levels equivalent to today’s arid regions, according to the study, published on Monday in Nature. 
• Over the next century, desert-like conditions — high soil temperatures and minimal soil moisture — will come to define a vast area of currently wet and temperate areas, the authors found.   

Lighting up to a blind spot: Scientists have gotten better at projecting future extremes of heat and drought, but they still face certain limitations, according to the researchers.   

“What our models can’t take into account is: what if the rules by which the[se] systems work change?” asked coauthor Heather Throop of Arizona State University in a statement. 

 
Coming changes: The regions poised to confront long-term changes include the wet and temperate ecosystems in the boreal forests of the northern latitudes, according to the study. Also under such threat are the tropical forests of Latin America, equatorial Africa and Southeast Asia, the authors found. 

• These environments are responding to a world where heat and drought are rapidly becoming more extreme. 
• The two hottest years on record were 2016 and 2020, and 19 of the hottest years on record have occurred since 2000, according to NASA.  
• Meanwhile extreme droughts are expected to increase in size, area and frequency, the Nature study found. 

Practical impacts: “By understanding better how drylands function, societies can better adapt to withstand climate extremes and lessen their impacts on nature and people,” Throop said. 

Motor Monday

The world’s most disrupted airport, GM’s plan for electric vehicle (EV) market dominance and Volkswagen hedges its bets on batteries. 

Toronto Pearson is the airport with the world’s worst delays 

• As flights get disrupted worldwide this summer, Toronto Pearson International Airport has earned  the title of airport with the worst delays, according to The Wall Street Journal. More than 53 percent of flights departing Toronto Pearson from June 1-July 18 arrived late to their destinations, the Journal reported, citing data specialist FlightAware.

GM betting on standard ‘skateboard’ to capture EV market share 

• General Motors says it is far ahead of other legacy automakers in the drive to create and scale up a standardized “EV platform” that it can adapt to a wide range of vehicles, CNBC reported. Such a “ground-up EV design” is essential to lowering costs and increasing volumes enough to reach mass market status, automotive consultant Mark Wakefield told CNBC.

Volkswagen wants e-fuels alongside their EVs 

• The new head of Volkswagen is betting on “e-fuels” — ostensibly carbon-neutral synthetic versions of products like gasoline — in addition to electric vehicles, The Wall Street Journal reported. Such “a two-track” is popular among both German auto industry leaders and trade unions, according to the Journal. 

Please visit The Hill’s Sustainability section online for the web version of this newsletter and more stories. We’ll see you tomorrow.

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Health Care — Dems enter final stretch on drug price push

The 560-million-year-old fossil of an animal believed to be the first animal predator has received the honor of being named after Sir David Attenborough. 

Today in health care, Democrats are closing in on the long-held goal of allowing Medicare to negotiate drug prices, but some last-minute obstacles still loom.  

Welcome to Overnight Health Care, where we’re following the latest moves on policy and news affecting your health. For The Hill, we’re Peter Sullivan, Nathaniel Weixel and Joseph Choi. Someone forward you this newsletter? Subscribe here.

Dems rev up efforts to lower drug prices

A lot has been removed from Democrats’ major economic package, but there’s still a long-held goal for the party that they’re hoping to pass: Lowering prescription drug prices.  

The bill, which could get a Senate vote in the next two weeks, would allow Medicare to negotiate lower prices for some prescription drugs for the first time, a goal Democrats have been pushing for years.   

It appears that Democrats have the votes to pass the measure without any GOP support, but a range of obstacles loom in the final stretch.  

• Republicans and the powerful pharmaceutical industry are fiercely opposed to the measure.  
• With a razor-thin margin in a 50-50 Senate, the absence of any Democratic senators due to COVID-19 or other reasons could throw off the party’s plans. 

Two or three years of ACA subsidies? The bill would also extend increased financial assistance to help people afford their health insurance premiums under the Affordable Care Act.   

The extension of the extra help is likely to be for two years, though sources say there is some discussion of increasing it to three years. Adding the extra year would avoid setting up a cliff right before the 2024 presidential election. 

Read more here.  

GOP plots Fauci probe after midterms

Congressional Republicans are eagerly floating investigations into Anthony Fauci and the Biden administration’s response to the coronavirus pandemic if they win back control of the House or Senate in the midterm elections.  

• “One way or another, if we are in the majority, we will subpoena his records and he will testify in the Senate under oath,” said Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.), who is in line to become the chairman of the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee if Republicans win the majority with the panel’s current ranking member, Sen. Richard Burr (R-N.C.), retiring. 

Republicans have not been shy about launching probes into the U.S. response to the coronavirus pandemic, focusing on the origins of the virus and whether the federal government — and by extension, Fauci — helped fund controversial research that might have played a role in its creation. 

While Republicans have been in the minority, those investigations have not gained much momentum. But with the majority, the GOP would have the authority to lob subpoenas at the administration to force it to hand over documents.  

In the House, Rep. Jim Jordan (R-Ohio), who is in line to chair the House Judiciary Committee if Republicans win the majority, told The Hill that he sees no limits to what he wants to investigate about Fauci and the pandemic.

Read more here. 

NO GUARANTEE MONKEYPOX CONFINED TO SPECIFIC COMMUNITIES  

The global outbreak of monkeypox should not be expected to stay confined to specific groups, a World Health Organization (WHO) official said Monday.  

Though cases of the virus have been predominantly reported among men who have sex with men, diseases commonly begin in one community before spreading to others. 

“This really might be the canary in the mine that’s alerting to us of a new disease threat that could spread to other groups,” Catherine Smallwood, senior emergency officer at the WHO, said Monday on CNBC’s “Street Signs Europe.” 

“At the moment, cases continually continue to be reported among men who have sex with men, for the most part, but we should not expect that to remain as such,” Smallwood added. 

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reported 2,891 cases in the U.S. as of July 22 and more than 16,836 cases globally. 

Read more here. 

MANCHIN TESTS POSITIVE FOR COVID-19

Sen. Joe Manchin (D-W.Va.) said Monday that he tested positive for COVID-19.  

“This morning I tested positive for COVID-19,” Manchin, 74, wrote on Twitter.  

“I am fully vaccinated and boosted and am experiencing mild symptoms. I will isolate and follow CDC guidelines as I continue to work remotely to serve West Virginians.” 

Manchin is the latest in a string of senators to test positive, as well as President Biden.  

Democrats’ dilemma: If other Democrats test positive next week, it could pose an obstacle for passing a health care measure that would lower prescription drug prices and continue enhanced financial assistance under the Affordable Care Act. Manchin is a key vote on the measure in a Senate split evenly between the two parties. 

Sens. Tom Carper (D-Del.) and Tina Smith (D-Minn.) also tested positive last week. 

Manchin could be out of isolation after five days, according to Centers for Disease Control and Prevention guidelines, if his symptoms are improving.  

Read more here. 

Feds propose bolstering LGBTQ health protections

A new proposal from the Biden administration would reverse Trump-era limits on health care protections against discrimination for transgender and other LGBTQ people.   

The proposed rule from the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) would strengthen ObamaCare’s rules to prohibit discrimination based on sex, including sexual orientation and gender identity, in certain health programs and activities that receive federal funding.  

The proposal also seeks to protect from discrimination people seeking reproductive health care services, including those who have had abortions. 

The move comes after former President Trump’s administration ruled to remove most of the protections that prevented health care workers from denying care to patients based on their gender identity or sexual orientation. 

Key quote: “We know that in many states, communities, our transgender community, are feeling like they’re being left out. This I hope will send a signal that if you are seeking health care, and you have a right to access that care, we will protect that right against discrimination,” said HHS Secretary Xavier Becerra. 

Read more here. 

WHAT WE’RE READING

• Two deadly days in St. Louis: An overdose cluster kills 8 Black people — and shows the new shape of the addiction crisis (Stat) 
• Hospitals struggle with staff shortages as federal Covid funds run out (Politico)   
• Why is insulin still so expensive for diabetes patients in the U.S.? (NBC News) 
• Big hospitals provide skimpy charity care—despite billions in tax breaks (Wall Street Journal) 

STATE BY STATE

• Indiana may soon ban abortion if Republican lawmakers can agree on how far to go (NPR) 
• University of Michigan medical students walk out as anti-abortion keynote speaker takes stage (WDIV) 
• ‘The stakes could not be higher’: Kansas abortion vote set for Aug. 2 (Washington Post)  

THE HILL OP-EDS

• Congress should seize opportunity to cut medication costs for consumers 
• ‘Hidden’ COVID fatalities show US death investigations need reform 
• The federal transportation mask mandate may be dead, but masking is not 
• Last chance for VA’s multi-billion electronic health records system? 

That’s it for today, thanks for reading. Check out The Hill’s Health Care page for the latest news and coverage. See you tomorrow.

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Biden administration announces plans to plant one billion trees

The Biden administration on Monday outlined plans to plant one billion trees as part of efforts to address an extensive reforestation backlog. 

The effort, spearheaded by the Department of Agriculture, will build on existing reforestation efforts using funds from the bipartisan infrastructure law and the bipartisan Repairing Existing Public Land by Adding Necessary Trees (REPLANT) Act.

Without the two laws, Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack said, the department would only have been able to address about 6 percent of the reforestation backlog.  

“Forests are a powerful tool in the fight against climate change,” Vilsack said in a statement. “Nurturing their natural regeneration and planting in areas with the most need is critical to mitigating the worst effects of climate change while also making those forests more resilient to the threats they face from catastrophic wildfire, historic drought, disease outbreaks and pest infestation.” 

“Our reforestation efforts on national forests only increase through strong partnerships with other federal agencies, tribes, state and local governments, communities and organizations,” added US Forest Service Chief Randy Moore. “We recognize that successfully increasing reforestation on national forests is dependent on these strong partnerships.” 

The Forest Service has this year significantly expanded reforestation funds, putting about $100 million toward such efforts this year, at a time when unprecedented wildfires remain a looming threat. 

The announcement is the latest of a number of forestry-related moves by the federal government.

In April, President Biden signed an executive order aimed at protecting old-growth forests. In August, before Biden took office, the U.S. officially signed onto an effort to plant one trillion trees worldwide, with a goal of at least 855 million in the U.S. by 2030.

Republicans in particular have pushed planting more trees as an alternative to broader decarbonization efforts. Experts, however, say that planting enough trees to offset current carbon emissions is not feasible in terms of time or space. 

Source: TEST FEED1

Watch Live: Mike Pence on America's Future and Freedom

Former Vice President Mike Pence will deliver remarks Monday evening on policy recommendations for America’s future.

The event is scheduled to begin at 5:00 p.m. ET.

Watch the video above.

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Biden: GOP can’t be on side of police if they don’t support assault weapon ban

President Biden on Monday argued that Republicans aren’t on the side of law enforcement if they oppose banning assault weapons in remarks to a Black law enforcement organization. 

“You hear a lot of politicians say about how much they love you, how much they care about you, they’ll do anything for you. In the state you’re in today, Gov. [Ron] DeSantis, Sen. Marco Rubio, Sen. Rick Scott all opposed banning assault weapons, and Sen. Scott and Rubio voted against the bipartisan gun safety law that I signed,” Biden said, calling out the Florida Republicans. 

“To me, it’s simple. If you can’t support banning weapons of war on American streets, you’re not on the side of police,” he added. 

He said that the organization, the National Organization of Black Law Enforcement Executives (NOBLE), supported the assault weapon ban that passed in 1994 when Biden was in the Senate and expired 20 years later. 

“Being a cop today is a hell of a lot harder than it’s ever been. We expect everything of you. Maybe worst of all, we send you out to do your job on the streets flooded with weapons of war,” Biden said. 

He was previously slated to go to Florida, a battleground state, to deliver the remarks at the NOBLE conference in person but is isolating at the White House after testing positive for COVID-19 on Thursday. The trip would have been his second to Florida since taking office. 

Biden told the conference, “On the ballot this year will be whether or not this nation bans assault weapons.” 

The House Judiciary Committee advanced a bill to ban assault weapons last week, which marked the first time in two decades a congressional panel has moved to prohibit the sale, transfer and possession of the popular firearms. The bill has little chance of advancing given GOP opposition in the evenly divided Senate. 

The move comes after a spate of mass shootings in the U.S., including at an elementary school in Uvalde, Texas, and at a July Fourth parade in Highland Park, Ill. In each incident, the alleged shooter was young man with an AR-style semi-automatic weapon, which is the main firearm the legislation aims to restrict. 

Source: TEST FEED1

Global citizens: We may have to sue our way out of the climate crisis

Britain and the British are baking in a record-breaking 40-plus degrees Celsius heatwave. Large parts of Europe, including France and Spain are under extreme heat stress, as wildfires rage. 

This summer’s heatwave demonstrates that for an increasing number of us, we are already living inside a climate tipping point, a disjunctive break and shift from one steady state to a new hotter, much more dangerous one. Still again and again national political leaders fail to deliver on their political and legal commitments to net zero plans, the urgent and necessary changes in policy and practices required to tackle and eventually reduce rising greenhouse gas emissions, now at 421 parts per million. 

The platitudes, the ‘blah blah blah,’ of empty declarations, are as Greta Thunberg excoriated, woefully insufficient. But finally, at long last leaders public and private are beginning to be held legally accountable for their doubletalk and dissembling.

On July 18. the United Kingdom’s High Court showed us that activists can use the courts and legal system in Europe to force the pace of policy action. In a major ruling and order, the court ruled that the U.K. strategy for net zero was inadequate and unlawful. The U.K. Climate Change Act requires the government to hit net zero by 2050 and to make proposals on how it will meet that annual carbon target. The court found the government’s plan did not comply with the law — it was too vague to demonstrate statutory net zero targets would be met.

This landmark case, brought by The Good Law Project will force the government to recast its net zero plans and replace platitudes with measurable and tougher paths to annual goals. The ruling made clear the law does not permit the government to replace reality and scientific facts with political narratives that obscure rather than cut greenhouse gas emissions. 

This U.K. case and a growing number of other judgments highlight how citizens can use national court systems to hold their leaders to account for failures to deliver on climate policy implementation and help ensure policy matches the planetary promises.

French courts have stepped forward to ensure green policies are not merely broken promises. In October, the Paris administrative tribunal ruling ordered the French government to take all necessary measures to address ecological damages and emissions by the end of December 2022 at the latest. France — like the U.K. — has enacted legally binding net zero commitments; hence the willingness of judges to step into action.

In 2021 the Hague District Court in the Netherlands ordered Royal Dutch Shell to reduce its worldwide CO2 emissions by 45 percent by 2030 (compared to 2019 levels).  The court found that the company had an obligation to reduce CO2 emissions resulting from the Shell group’s activities, including suppliers and end-users. The court found that Shell’s climate policies were insufficient, which was no surprise to observers. The Dutch court’s ruling drew on a series of earlier judgments requiring the government to lower emissions, and hence, the role that private firms must also play. The was the first time any court imposed a duty on a company to do its share to prevent dangerous climate change.    

These rulings (and I expect many more) show courts — excluding, for now, unfortunately, U.S. courts — can be key allies in the fight against climate change and against governments and private firms’ stalling restorative actions.

Today corporate boards of directors need to take note of the rising legal risks they face. Many firms have now agreed in principle to net zero plans, urged on by Mark Carney, UN Special Envoy in Finance and Climate, and the Glasgow Financial Alliance for Net Zero (GFANZ). These commitments, by many of the world’s largest firms, must now be implemented and pursued year by year.

Chairs and non-executive directors need to ask probing and consistent tough questions of their firms’ senior management. What is our net zero plan short, medium and long-term? How are progress and failure being measured and reported? Are our employees being judged against related green business targets? What science-based standards are you using? Is our annual net zero plan being reviewed and audited?

With most regulators beginning to (including America’s Securities and Exchange Commission), implement transition reporting and disclosure standards, these types of questions and the answers they elicit can help firms achieve net zero goals and inoculate them against future legal jeopardy.

Going forward, directors of firms that consistently fail to design and implement workable net zero plans could be held legally liable for their failures because these mistakes can cost lives, result in lost profits and create unacceptable and firm-level rising risks. Equity owners will seek redress for net zero firm-level failures. Directors will face real legal danger if they do not embed and monitor net zero plans and goals within their strategies. Firms will need to measure against science-based comparable green standards.

What if firms are merely greenwashing and engaging in virtue signaling, rather than real changes to strategies and plans? If this is discovered the courts and regulators will be pressed to intervene.

The example of Deutsche Bank and alleged fraudulent greenwashing by the DSW subsidiary, now being investigated by German prosecutors, illuminates just this type of danger for major firms that opt for bogus ESG standards. We all should suspect that many other ESG funds’ investment claims are shaky at best, or fraudulent at worst.

Increasingly, lawyers will be called, and suits filed. Younger green activist investors are hardly likely to let their advisors off the hook for poor counsel, and dubious polluting investments: The courts will be used to punish bad actors and CEOs should take note.

Climate breaking points are upon us, as this summer’s scorching temperatures demonstrate. We can despair, but we must also support the increasing use of legal challenges across our markets and economies to help turn weak political net zero promises into meaningful legally binding rulings and implementation. Citizens, investors and stakeholders should use the law to enforce net zero plans, at the national and firm level. In many countries, the legal frameworks for these types of cases already exist. 

I suggest that if you care about the green transition, it may now be time to call your lawyer. 

Stuart P.M. Mackintosh is Executive Director of the Group of Thirty, and author of “Climate Crisis Economics.”

Source: TEST FEED1

Biden says he’s feeling great, hopes to be back in-person by end of week

President Biden on Monday said he is feeling great and hopes to be back to working in-person by the end of the week, following testing positive for COVID-19 last week. 

“I’m feeling great. You know, I’ve had two full nights of sleep, all the way through. A matter of fact, my dog had to wake me up this morning,” he told reporters following a virtual meeting at the White House that he called into from the residence. 

The president said the first lady, who is not at the White House while Biden is isolating, usually takes the dog out in the morning while he exercises. 

“I felt this nuzzle of my dog’s nose against my chest about five minutes or seven,” he said. 

Biden’s answers marked the first time he has interacted with the press since testing positive on Thursday.

“I hope I’m back to work in person by the end of this week,” he said. “As you know, I’ve been keeping a full schedule.” 

He said he started his day on Monday at 9:30 a.m. and plans to finish it by 6:30 p.m., which aren’t the “same hours” he typically has. 

“I’m not keeping the same hours, but I’m meeting all my requirements that come before me and we’re making decisions on a whole range of other topics as well.” 

Biden described some of his symptoms, saying that his voice is still “raspy” but adding that all of his tests like temperature and oxygen are “on the button.” 

“I’m feeling better every day. I still have this, a little bit of a sore throat and a little bit of a cough. But it’s changing significantly. It’s now up in the upper part of my throat, actually it’s more around my nose than anything else. But they tell me that’s part for the course. And I think I’m on my way to full, total recovering, God willing,” he said. 

The president, who is vaccinated and boosted against COVID-19, completed his fourth day of the antiviral Paxlovid on Sunday evening.

The president’s physician Kevin O’Connor said Biden’s symptoms are “almost completely resolved” in a memorandum on Monday and that the president only has residual nasal congestion and minimal hoarseness. 

During the virtual meeting on Monday, Biden’s voice sounded hoarse, and he coughed a few times. 

He was meeting with labor leaders, executives, Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo, Deputy Secretary of Defense Kathleen Hicks and White House Council of Economic Advisers Director Brian Deese to discuss boosting the domestic semiconductor industry.   

Source: TEST FEED1

Dozens of University of Michigan medical students walk out on anti-abortion keynote speaker

Dozens of incoming medical students at the University of Michigan walked out on a keynote address from an anti-abortion speaker on Sunday in a now-viral moment.

Throngs of incoming medical students, known as white coats, stood up as soon as Kristin Collier, an assistant professor of medicine at the University of Michigan, began speaking at the Hill Auditorium during the white coat ceremony in the city of Ann Arbor.

One video capturing the walkout was uploaded to Twitter and retweeted more than 74,000 times as of Monday afternoon.

Collier, who is also the director of the university’s medical school health, spirituality and religion program, has shared anti-abortion views on her personal Twitter account and in interviews.

On June 24, she tweeted support for the Supreme Court’s decision to overturn Roe v. Wade and the 50-year constitutional right to abortion.

In another May 4 tweet, Collier said that “liberation that costs innocent lives is just oppression that is redistributed.”

“Holding on to a view of feminism where one fights for the rights of all women and girls, especially those who are most vulnerable,” she wrote in another tweet. “I can’t not lament the violence directed at my prenatal sisters in the act of abortion, done in the name of autonomy.”

The Hill has reached out to the University of Michigan Medical School for comment. The college has not mentioned the walkout or the keynote address from Collier but has shared posts applauding the incoming class.

After the Supreme Court’s decision overturning Roe v. Wade, University of Michigan President Mary Sue Coleman said she supported abortion rights and would “do everything in my power as president to ensure we continue to provide this critically important care.”

“Our campus is more than half women; we care about our own communities as well as those we serve through clinical care and education,” Coleman said in a statement last month. “I am deeply concerned about how prohibiting abortion would affect U-M’s medical teaching, our research, and our service to communities in need.”

A petition to remove Collier as the keynote speaker ahead of the Sunday ceremony collected signatures from more than 340 incoming and current students, according to The Michigan Daily.

Despite the pressure, the school declined to remove Collier as a speaker.

A spokesperson told The Michigan Daily that the professor was selected based on her qualifications and that the school wouldn’t rescind her selection because of her views on abortion.

Source: TEST FEED1