Today marks the 60th anniversary of the creation of Medicare and Medicaid — and nearly one month since President Trump’s federal budget slashed nearly $1 trillion from Medicaid to extend tax cuts for the rich. The cuts could lead to tens of thousands of unnecessary deaths every year. “Medicaid has been a lifeline. And without it, people will die,” says Ai-jen Poo, co-founder of Caring Across Generations and the Domestic Workers Alliance, which helped organize a 60-hour vigil last week ahead of the anniversary as part of a broader campaign to fight back against Trump’s cuts. She highlights the role of immigrants, who make up a third of the caregiving sector, and says Trump’s crackdown on immigration hastens the dwindling of care available to the aging and elderly. “We should be adding a trillion dollars in investments in healthcare in this country and in caregiving services in this country,” says Poo. “We need to strengthen these systems and programs for the 22nd century, not gut them.”

This content originally appeared on Democracy Now! and was authored by Democracy Now!.

The truck halted on a snow bridge over a wide creek — 1 of 5 made of snow along this road. It was wide enough for only one truck to cross at a time; its snowy surface barely 2 feet above the creek. Wesley zipped up her thick jacket and jumped out into the frigid night air. She looked at the creek and pointed at its open, flowing water. “That’s not normal,” she said, placing a cigarette between her lips.

Wesley, who wore glasses and a knit cap pulled over her shoulder-length hair, manages the crews that build the winter road — a vital supply route that the community of 650 people relies on to truck in lumber for housing, fuel, food, and bottled water. In the past, winters were so cold that she could walk on the ice that naturally formed over the creek. Now it no longer freezes, and neither do the human-made snow bridges. “It’s directly caused by global warming,” she said, lighting the cigarette.

More than 50 First Nations in Canada — with 56,000 people total — depend on approximately 3,700 miles of winter roads. There are no paved roads connecting these Indigenous communities to the nearest cities. Most of the year, small planes are their only lifeline. But in winter, the lakes, creeks, and marshes around them freeze, allowing workers to build a vast network of ice roads for truck drivers to haul in supplies at a lower cost than flying them in.

Despite their isolation, the ice roads are community spaces. They guide hockey and broomball teams from small reserves to big cities to compete in tournaments. They enable families to stock up on cheap groceries. They bring people to medical appointments in cities and facilitate hunting and fishing trips with relatives in neighboring communities.

But the climate crisis is making it harder to build and maintain the ice roads. Winter is arriving later, pushing back construction, and spring is appearing earlier, bringing even the most robust frozen highways to an abrupt end. Less snow is falling, making the bridges smaller and more vulnerable to collapse under heavy trucks.

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Anita Hofschneider

The rising temperatures give trucks only a few short weeks to bring in supplies — and often with half-loads due to thin lake ice and fragile snow bridges. Last year, chiefs in northern Ontario declared a state of emergency when the winter roads failed to freeze on time, and in March this year, rain shut down the ice roads to five communities.

First Nations urgently need permanent roads, but it’s unclear who will pay for them. Government officials in Canada say it’s not their responsibility, and with price tags running into the hundreds of millions of dollars for each community, First Nations typically don’t have the money to fund them. 

But there is a third, more complex option: Many communities that rely on disappearing ice roads sit atop lucrative minerals. And where mining is approved, road permits and government funding soon follow.

For nearly two decades, companies and governments have eyed a circular mining area in northern Ontario as a promise of economic prosperity. Named after the Johnny Cash song, the Ring of Fire spans 2,000 miles and contains chromite, nickel, copper, platinum, gold, and zinc, all of which can be used to make EV batteries, cell phones, and military equipment. Scattered across the north are dozens of mines that extract gold, iron, and other minerals, but none compare to the scale of the Ring of Fire.

But resistance by First Nations and a lack of paved roads has stalled extraction. Mining the region could threaten the fight against climate change: Ontario’s northern peatlands, for instance, sequester an estimated 39 billion tons of carbon that could be released if the land is mined. The proposed Ring of Fire mining area alone holds about 1.8 billion tons of carbon. To put that in perspective, the Amazon rainforest sequesters about 123 billion tons of carbon. 

Ontario’s premier, Doug Ford, has longed for years to develop the Ring of Fire, even promising to “hop on a bulldozer” himself. The province, which is responsible for natural resources and road permitting, has committed 1 billion Canadian dollars ($740 million) to build permanent roads to open up mining, asking the federal government to kick in another CA$1 billion. Meanwhile, at least a dozen First Nations in Ontario are requesting government funding for all-season roads.

During the recent election, Ford vowed to “unlock” the Ring of Fire and has introduced legislation to fast-track development, actions that some First Nation leaders perceived as a threat. The Nishnawbe Aski Nation, or NAN for short, a regional Indigenous government representing 49 First Nations in northern Ontario, warned the province that it was overstepping its authority. 

“The unilateral will of the day’s government will not dictate the speed of development on our lands, and continuing to disregard our legal rights serves to reinforce the colonial and racist approach that we have always had to fight against,” said NAN Grand Chief Alvin Fiddler in a statement. First Nations in the Ring of Fire area are not necessarily antidevelopment, but Fiddler said they must be engaged as partners under regional treaties.

Responding to the premier’s promise to get on a bulldozer, Eabametoong First Nation Chief Solomon Atlookan said, “Nobody’s gonna come without our consent.”

Located in the Ring of Fire region, Eabametoong relies on a winter road for supplies, including lumber for housing. The seasonal window for their ice road has shrunk so much that the community struggles to bring in enough materials to address a severe housing crisis. According to Atlookan, some homes have as many as 14 people living under one roof. Eabametoong used to haul fuel over the winter road, but it is now flown in at a much higher cost.

Atlookan said that building a permanent road could threaten traditional ways of life by bringing in tourists, allowing settlers more access to lands to build cottages, and increasing competition over hunting and fishing. But climate change and rising costs are forcing him to seriously consider a paved road. “We need to begin working on it now,” he said.

Atlookan is not against mining but knows there are trade-offs. His community’s traditional territories contain countless interwoven streams, lakes, and rivers, and mining upstream could contaminate nearby walleye spawning habitat. “They don’t realize how interconnected those tributaries are, where the fish spawn,” he said. ”It’ll destroy that livelihood for our communities. So there’s a lot at stake here.”

The province is motivated to build all-season roads to allow a more sustainable flow of goods as climate change threatens the ice roads, according to a spokesperson for Greg Rickford, Ontario’s minister of Indigenous affairs and First Nations economic reconciliation. They’re committed to “meaningful partnerships” to advance economic opportunities in the region, the spokesperson added.

But that’s not how Atlookan views the situation. He described a conversation he had with Rickford, who offered to build him an all-season road. He said he asked Rickford if he wanted access to minerals, and the minister denied that the road would be for mining access. “I said, ‘Rickford, that is what this is all about.’”

While Eabametoong is located in the Ring of Fire region and shares a network of winter roads with a cluster of other communities, Cat Lake is in a different situation.

Cat Lake is 160 miles west of Eabametoong, as the crow flies. The reserve rests at the edge of a watershed where five major rivers flow in opposite directions, affording the community access to various rivers for travel, hunting, and living off the land. It is not located in the Ring of Fire region and has its own winter road that doesn’t connect to other communities.

Cat Lake is rushing to build an all-season road by 2030 at a cost of CA$125 million, which the community cannot afford on its own. Cat Lake is considering two routes for an all-season road. One option involves construction over the current 103-mile winter road. The other option is to piggyback on an all-season road that would be built to a gold mine, if it is approved. The Springpole mine site is 25 miles from Cat Lake, giving the community the option to build a shorter all-season road.

First Mining Gold wants to drain a lake and dig a 1-mile open-pit mine to reach the gold underneath. To access Springpole, the company needs to build an all-season road.

In past years, company vehicles reached the site by driving over a winter road that passed over a frozen lake. But several times those vehicles plunged through the thin ice due to warm weather, according to First Mining Gold’s 2023 ESG report. The company figured it was too risky to keep crossing the lake, so it asked the province for permits to build an overland winter road.

Ontario issued a permit for the company to build the winter road without Cat Lake’s consent, prompting the First Nation to request an injunction to stop construction. The community dropped its court case after reaching a settlement with the province last year. First Mining Gold did not reply when asked for comment.

In September 2020, as the company prepared to apply for permits, Wesley invited elders to a meeting to ask two questions: Did they support Springpole, and did they want an all-season road? “In order for us to get a road, we might have to let them open the mine,” Wesley explained. The elders said they don’t value gold but do value lake trout, and they believed the project would destroy fish habitat. Elders also said they wanted an all-season road that would allow young people to connect with the world while embracing their culture. “We said no to the mine, and we said yes to the road,” she said.

After the elders meeting, Wesley began to look for ways to fund a permanent road without relying on mining. She said the federal government is hesitant to fund an all-season road to only one community, and the province won’t talk to Cat Lake about an all-season road. To unlock funding, she began pursuing economic partnerships like working with PRT Growing Services on forest regeneration and a local bioeconomy that would involve a tree-seedling nursery in the community. Cat Lake is also partnering with Natural Resources Institute Finland to do an assessment of their forests. 

“Relying on industry would mean that we would have to do mining with First Mining. And like I said, the community values land, air, and water. We don’t value gold,” she said.

The farther north you fly in Ontario, the fewer glimpses of infrastructure like power lines, cell towers, or paved roads. The winter landscape is composed of evergreen forests shot through with rivers and lakes, bright white from the snow resting on top. From a plane, the ice roads can be seen cutting through the trees and running over frozen lakes.

On a chilly, sunny afternoon on the Cat Lake winter road, Jonathan Williams drove a red truck with chains pulling heavy tires behind it. Known as “drags,” the tires smooth out the rough parts of the road. Warm weather makes the surface bumpy, requiring constant attention from workers like Williams, who has built winter roads for the last eight years.

“The year I started, it was minus 50 [degrees Celsius],” he said. “I was out fixing trucks on the road, and it was frickin’ crazy getting frostbite on your hands. After that, every year it’s been getting a little bit warmer, a little bit warmer.”

It costs about CA$500,000 ($358,800) each year to build and maintain Cat Lake’s winter road. The warming climate is taking a toll on the machines used on the road, but the budget no longer covers the expense of a CA$10,000 ($7,155) broken machine part.

Winter road construction, which splits the cost 50/50 between Indigenous Services Canada and Ontario’s Ministry of Northern Development, typically starts in November or early December. That’s when crews drive heavy machines over the earth to press it down. When snow arrives, they use grooming machines to pack it.

Like many reserves, driving over Cat Lake’s winter road requires passing over a lake with no bridge. When winter arrives and lake ice begins to form, crews repeatedly flood the lake to make the ice sturdy enough for heavy trucks. When the ice is ready, workers celebrate by spinning their grooming machines in circles on the frozen surface, a ritual called their “happy dance.”

To build the required snow bridges, crews use grooming machines to jam huge piles of snow into creeks. They let the snow settle for about 36 hours and then flood it to form icy crossings. The flowing water underneath naturally forms the ice into a culvert shape. “That’s why you need such a massive pile of snow to push out there, because all the water will take it away if there’s not enough,” Williams said.

A century ago, before planes and trucks became ubiquitous, remote reserves used tractor trains to pull supplies in sleds over the frozen landscape. “It’s a big bulldozer that pulls trailers behind them, sometimes 10 of them, and that’s where all the fuel came from, the groceries. Because they didn’t have big planes at the time,” explained Chief Atlookan of Eabametoong. “Back in the day, you didn’t worry about ice conditions — the ice was 40 inches thick.”

The remoteness of reserves is a direct outcome of Canada’s colonial history. In 1867, the British Parliament claimed Canada as a colony by passing the British North America Act, which later became its constitution. It granted the federal government exclusive authority over “Indians and lands reserved for Indians” and gave provinces authority over certain issues that affect First Nations, like mining.

Since European settlement, massive land grabs and the creation of reserves have left Indigenous peoples in Canada with only 0.2 percent of their original territories. Reserves were often deliberately sited in remote locations, away from critical waterways and productive farmland. There was never any intention of connecting reserves to cities; instead, they operated like jails, preventing people from moving off-reserve or seeking economic opportunities.

The federal government has a fiduciary responsibility to First Nations, as affirmed by the Supreme Court of Canada. Similar to the U.S. government’s relationship with tribes, this means the government has a legal duty to act in the best interest of Indigenous people. “Since the [court’s] decision, they’ve been looking for ways to offload their fiduciary obligations,” said Russ Diabo, a First Nations policy analyst and member of the Mohawk Nation at Kahnawake.

Although the federal government is obligated to provide the necessities of life on the reserve, like housing and water systems, federal funding formulas are unregulated and up to the government’s discretion, explained Shiri Pasternak, professor at Toronto Metropolitan University. As a result, there are huge discrepancies between what is needed and what is approved. “The underfunding of reserves amounts to systematic impoverishment,” she said.

This chronic underfunding means many First Nations experience crowded homes and broken-down water treatment plants. Although the federal government has committed to ensuring clean drinking water on reserves, more than 30 First Nations currently have long-term drinking water advisories. This includes Neskantaga in northern Ontario, which has been under a boil water advisory for three decades. Last year, in response to a lawsuit over Canada’s failure to provide clean drinking water to First Nations, the federal government argued it has no legal duty to ensure First Nations have clean water.

Despite the federal government’s history of abandoning its duties to First Nations, more communities are looking to Indigenous Services Canada, or ISC, for road funding. Of the 53 First Nations that depend on winter roads, 32 have asked ISC for funding to develop all-season roads.

The sun’s pink light disappeared over the horizon and night fell over the frozen lake surrounding Wesley’s community. She sat in the driver’s seat of her 4×4 truck that was parked on the lake’s icy surface. She watched as workers, bundled up in coats, toques, and boots, drilled a hole in the ice and pumped murky lake water through a hose into a machine. The spout of the machine, pointed upward at a 40-degree angle, blasted a stream of snowflakes into the air. 

A couple of years ago, Wesley asked her band council for a snowmaker. “They thought I was crazy,” she said. “The chief finally told me, ‘Go ahead and buy a snowmaker.’” 

Wesley has managed winter road construction for the past eight years. Her dad was the community’s economic development officer before her and was also responsible for the winter road. She grew up crawling around big machines; she would climb them and pretend the floor was lava. 

When she took over her father’s job, men cast doubt on her ability to oversee winter road construction. “She’s a girl, we don’t have to listen to her,” Wesley said, describing how they perceived her. “My dad told me, ‘You’re the boss. Tell them what to do.’” She said she proved herself, and now the workers respect her. They don’t ask questions, they do what she says. 

The snowmaker is a short-term adaptation. Wesley said the community has asked the provincial and federal governments to support construction of its all-season road.

In an interview in March, ISC minister Patty Hajdu recognized the disappearing ice roads as an emergency. “‘Emergency’ doesn’t even feel strong enough [to describe the situation],” she said. “It’s so urgent that we do more together to figure out what this next stage of living with climate change looks like for, in particular, remote communities.”

But Hajdu stopped short of committing funding for specific all-season roads. Instead, she said the cost will likely be shared but that the federal government was committed to funding all-season roads. “In theory, yes, but it isn’t as simple as a yes or no — it is project by project,” she said. “I can’t speak about specific amounts. I can’t speak about specific routes.” She said the situation is more complex than it seems, and the province has complete control over which routes are prioritized and built.

ISC provided about CA$260,000 ($186,000) for Cat Lake’s feasibility study to confirm potential routes for an all-season road. Hajdu said this is “an important step to the finalization of any infrastructure funding.”

Hajdu vowed not to tie all-season road funding to the acceptance of mining projects. “We should not be increasing funding for First Nations in any realm as a condition of approval for anything. That is very coercive and it’s very colonial,” she said.

“I wouldn’t believe it, because they use money as a way to coerce decisions. They may not directly openly tie it,” said Diabo, the policy analyst. 

Last year, ISC allocated CA$45 million ($32 million) for construction of a bridge and permanent road to Pikangikum First Nation, which has a winter road that crosses a lake. Although the government announcement did not mention mining, the road will also lead to a proposed lithium mine.

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Each summer, more fires burn through northern forests, Diabo said. “We’re in a time of emergency, and the issue of the disappearing winter roads is part of that.” Under the dual pressures of climate emergencies and extractive industries, some communities will decide to go forward with mining to build all-season roads. “We’re seeing that already,” he added.

In October, Wesley visited the lake that First Mining wants to drain for its proposed Springpole project. The company’s open-pit mine is in the final stages of the permitting process, and the company expects to receive federal approval by the end of this year.

For Wesley, the area isn’t just beautiful, it’s a reminder of her connection as an Ojibway person to the water, trees, fish, and land. It’s a relationship she described by saying, “I belong to the land.”

“I was almost crying, because the land is forever going to be changed in that area,” she said. “We’re gonna have a hole in the ground that’s forever going to be there. I don’t know how not to be emotional about that. Those are my relatives.”

This story was originally published by Grist with the headline Ice roads are a lifeline for First Nations. As Canada warms, they’re disappearing. on May 15, 2025.

This content originally appeared on Grist and was authored by Hillary Beaumont.

Andy Palmen, director of Greenpeace Netherlands said: “This is a setback for the climate and all those people impacted by the climate crisis. We are disappointed that Shell is being allowed to continue polluting. We will not give up the fight and this only motivates us more to take action against major polluters. It really gives hope that the court finds that Shell must respect human rights and has a duty to reduce its CO2 emissions.

“People all over the world are demanding climate justice. Later today, Greenpeace UK will face Shell and Equinor in court to stop new oil and gas drilling in the Jackdaw and Rosebank fields. Today’s ruling underscores the importance of world leaders now negotiating at the UN Climate Summit in Baku taking responsibility. The summit in Dubai last year marked the end of coal, oil and gas, now governments must come up with concrete plans to move away from fossil fuels.

In a few weeks time the International Court of Justice in The Hague will hold hearings on the obligations of states in the climate emergency. These hearings underscore the urgent need for global action to mitigate climate change and protect the rights and well-being of impacted communities.”

This content originally appeared on Common Dreams and was authored by Newswire Editor.

The French-proposed “pact” to salvage New Caledonia’s beleaguered nickel industry is still in limbo as the local Congress has decided to refer the whole document to a “special committee” for re-examination.

The committee was set up on Thursday during a Congress special sitting.

The pact has been proposed to rescue New Caledonia’s nickel industry, which faces grave difficulties.

• READ MORE: Other New Caledonia nickel industry reports

One of its three processing plants and smelters, Koniambo (KNS) located in the Northern province, has already been mothballed due to the decision from major financier Glencore to pull out and sell its 49 percent shares within the next six months.

This has already affected more than 1000 jobs.

This comes as a result of significant changes in the world nickel industry production market, which is now dominated by Indonesia, with the ability to produce nickel in large quantities and at a much lower price.

The other two processing plants, Prony Resources and historical player Société le Nickel (SLN, a subsidiary of French mining giant Eramet), also face a critical situation and the risk of closing down within the next few months.

Prony’s Swiss stakeholder Trafigura is also on the way out and Eramet has clearly indicated it no longer intends to further finance SLN.

Emergency assistance
The “pact” is an attempt by French Finance minister Bruno Le Maire (who visited New Caledonia on a fact-finding mission in November 2023) to provide some €200 million (NZ$365 million) in emergency assistance, provided New Caledonia’s nickel industry commits to major reforms in order to reduce its production costs and finds new market outlets, possibly in Europe.

Le Maire initially scheduled the signing of this pact for the end of January 2024.

But since, the document has still not been signed.

Even though France and most pro-France parties in New Caledonia have since urged local authorities to urgently sign the document, it now faces more opposition from the pro-independence parties there, as well as one of the pro-French parties (Calédonie Ensemble).

They argue that the pact, in its present form, is not asking enough commitment from the nickel industry companies and that it also required New Caledonia to dig into its coffers and find over 65 million US dollars to finance a cost-cutting electricity exercise, which would require raison new taxes and therefore adding to the burden of the local population.

SLN’s extraction sites blockaded
For more than a week also, SLN is facing more hardships as it is barred from extracting nickel for its Nouméa smelter in the Northern province.

This comes after a decision from Northern province President Paul Néaoutyine, who has invoked several late payments of an administrative provision designed to guarantee possible environmental damage.

Eramet has since held several emergency meetings in Paris and released sufficient funds for a short-term payment.

But Néaoutyine has since demanded that those payments cover a longer period.

Meanwhile, SLN’s extraction activities on Northern sites have ground to a halt.

Only maintenance and security work is remaining.

This places SLN’s Nouméa smelter in a reduced activity mode with a real danger of slow suffocation if normal levels of nickel supply don’t resume soon enough.

Over the past week, tension has significantly escalated on SLN’s extraction sites, where blockades have sometimes prevented SLN employees to access Northern extraction sites.

Some of the SLN staff have also been verbally “insulted” and assaulted” by local villagers in the rural mining towns of Canala, La Foa and Kouaoua, SLN said earlier this week in a release.

Nickel turns political again
New Caledonia’s Congress (with a pro-independence majority of members) on Thursday resolved to initiate a process of “formulating complementary” and “alternative” propositions to the French nickel pact.

During sometimes heated debates, pro-pact parties Les Loyalistes and Rassemblement have expressed strong reservations about the new process, saying the signature was urgent and that thousands of jobs were at stake.

Last week, New Caledonia’s government President Louis Mapou, even though a member of the pro-independence side, urged the Congress pro-independence majority members to vote for the signing of the pact.

He accused them of ignoring economic reality and of wanting to turn the whole issue into a political one.

The nickel pact issue has since become a major bone of contention in the more general political confrontation between pro-independence and pro-France parties, including over a French-proposed change in voters eligibility for local elections.

Talks between all local parties in order to address New Caledonia’s long-term political future have been stalled.

On April 13, those issues were at the centre of two simultaneous demonstrations when the marches, one organised by pro-independence movements and the other by pro-France parties, brought at least 40,000 people to the streets of Nouméa.

The Congress’s new Special Committee is scheduled to hold its first meeting on Monday, 22 April 2024.

No date has been announced that would indicate a specific duration for its debates.

This article is republished under a community partnership agreement with RNZ.

This content originally appeared on Asia Pacific Report and was authored by APR editor.

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Former President Donald Trump scored a victory last week when a New York court slashed the amount he had to put up while appealing his civil fraud case to $175 million.

His lawyers had told the appellate court it was a “practical impossibility” to get a bond for the full amount of the lower court’s judgment, $464 million. All of the 30 or so firms Trump had approached balked, either refusing to take the risk or not wanting to accept real estate as collateral, they said. That made raising the full amount “an impossible bond requirement.”

But before the judges ruled, the impossible became possible: A billionaire lender approached Trump about providing a bond for the full amount.

The lawyers never filed paperwork alerting the appeals court. That failure may have violated ethics rules, legal experts say.

In an interview with ProPublica, billionaire California financier Don Hankey said he reached out to Trump’s camp several days before the bond was lowered, expressing willingness to offer the full amount and to use real estate as collateral.

“I saw that they were rejected by everyone and I said, ‘Gee, that doesn’t seem like a difficult bond to post,’” Hankey said.

As negotiations between Hankey and Trump’s representatives were underway, the appellate court ruled in Trump’s favor, lowering the bond to $175 million. The court did not give an explanation for its ruling.

Hankey ended up giving Trump a bond for the lowered amount.

It’s unclear if Trump lawyer Alina Habba or the rest of his legal team were made aware that Hankey reached out about a deal for the full amount. Trump’s legal team did not respond to requests for comment.

After ProPublica reached out to Trump’s representatives, Hankey called back and revised his account. He said he had heard “indirectly” about ProPublica’s subsequent inquiries to Trump’s lawyers. In the second conversation, he said that accepting the real estate as collateral would have been complicated and that he wouldn’t have been able to “commit” to providing a bond in the full amount “until I evaluate the assets.”

Legal ethics experts said it would be troubling if Trump’s lawyers knew about Hankey’s approach and failed to notify the court.

New York state’s rules of professional conduct for lawyers forbid attorneys from knowingly making false statements to a court. At the time Trump’s lawyers told the court that meeting the bond would be impossible, Hankey said he had not yet reached out to the Trump team.

But the rules of conduct also dictate that lawyers must “correct a false statement of material fact or law previously made” to the court.

“If that deal was on the table for the taking, the representation from the earlier time would be untrue, and the lawyer would have an obligation to correct,” said Stephen Gillers, a legal ethics professor at New York University Law School.

In the rules of conduct for lawyers, the failure to update an important piece of evidence would fall under what’s referred to as the “duty of candor to a tribunal,” said Ellen Yaroshefsky, a professor of legal ethics at Hofstra Law.

“Any judge is going to be furious that this wasn’t corrected,” she said.

Scott Cummings, a legal ethics professor at UCLA’s law school, agreed that there was a potential ethical failure but said Trump’s lawyers could argue that they were not obligated to alert the court.

“A very narrow reading of this rule would be there is no obligation to report because it wasn’t a false statement at the time,” Cummings said.

The need for the bond arose from a case brought against Trump by the New York attorney general, who accused him of fraudulently inflating his net worth to get favorable loans and other benefits. A judge agreed and ordered Trump and the other defendants to pay $464 million.

Trump had a month to come up with the sum or risked having his properties seized.

When a defendant loses a civil case in New York, the creditor — in this case the attorney general — can immediately go after the defendant’s assets to collect the judgment. The defendant can protect his assets while pursuing an appeal by posting a bond. Typically obtained from an insurance company for a fee, the bond is essentially a promise that the company will guarantee payment of the judgment if the appeal fails.

In his first interview with ProPublica, Hankey said that when he heard Trump was having trouble getting a bond, he reached out to Trump’s camp, several days before the bond was reduced, with an offer to help.

Hankey, who took a break from a game of bocce to speak to ProPublica, is rated by Forbes as one of the 400 wealthiest people in the world with an estimated net worth of more than $7 billion. He made much of his fortune with high-interest car loans to risky borrowers, and he is chairman of a Los Angeles-based network of companies across a range of industries, including real estate, insurance and finance. He has said he supports Trump politically but would have wanted to make the deal no matter his politics.

Hankey told ProPublica that during the talks he came to the conclusion that Trump’s “got the liquidity” and was confused why others would have rejected him, speculating that some may have wanted to avoid political backlash: “If you’re a public company, maybe you don’t want to offend 45% of the population.”

Hankey said he informed Trump’s camp that he was willing to work with them, and “they said they had the collateral.” The two sides went over the assets that had to be pledged, and it was up to Trump “if they wanted to do it.” (In his second call, Hankey said making a deal would have been “difficult.”)

But, he said, the deal for the larger amount was dropped during a large Zoom call between the two sides, when Trump’s camp got a call informing them that the bond was reduced.

“They thanked us for trying to help: ‘Maybe next year, we’ll try to do business again,’” Hankey recalled them saying.

But several days later, Hankey said, they called back, hoping to make a deal for the reduced bond, and Hankey agreed.

The bond saga is not over. In a brief court filing on Thursday, the New York attorney general asked Trump or Hankey’s company to show that the company has the financial means to fulfill the $175 million bond.

Do you have any information about this case that we should know? Robert Faturechi can be reached by email at robert.faturechi@propublica.org and by Signal or WhatsApp at 213-271-7217. Justin Elliott can be reached by email at justin@propublica.org or by Signal or WhatsApp at 774-826-6240.

This content originally appeared on Articles and Investigations - ProPublica and was authored by by Robert Faturechi, Justin Elliott and Alex Mierjeski.

A New Zealander working for the UN refugee agency for Palestinians says having countries pull funding is devastating.

Speaking from Geneva, Hector Sharp told RNZ Midday Report UNRWA was the only organisation with the ability to deliver the kind of aid needed in Gaza.

“We’ve been doing this for 75 years, so we’re quite good at it,” he said.

• READ MORE: UNRWA fund cuts by the West ‘collective punishment’ against Palestinians
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• Israel’s war on Gaza live: Aid cuts are ‘collective punishment’ – UNRWA
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“In Gaza, we have nearly two million people of the 2.3 million residents completely dependent on UNRWA for their daily shelter, food, and survival.”

Sharp said what was happening now in Gaza was a man-made famine.

“This loss of funding comes at a time where UNRWA is a lifeline for millions of people,” he said.

Sharp said they were urging the countries that had cut funding to reverse those decisions.

He said the allegations of staff from UNRWA being involved in the October 7 attacks came as a shock.

“United Nations employees must remain neutral, independent, and impartial,” he said.

UNRWA is ‘humanitarian’
“UNRWA is a humanitarian agency — we don’t have a police force, we don’t have an intelligence service or a criminal justice capacity, so we have no authority to monitor what our staff do outside their work.

“But, we also don’t work in a vacuum, our staff are drawn from a population which is under ongoing occupation and we are aware of the neutrality risks that this poses,” Sharp said.

New Zealand’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade said it would review its contribution for the UNRWA, which is under fire after 12 of its staff allegedly took part in the Hamas attack on Israel on October 7.

The ministry said in a statement that this country had been providing UNRWA with $1 million a year in funding.

“As we always do prior to releasing funds, we will assess the situation again prior to that payment being made,” the statement said.

At least nine countries, including top donors the US and Germany, had paused funding after allegations by Israel about 12 staff who had since been dismissed.

This article is republished under a community partnership agreement with RNZ.

This content originally appeared on Asia Pacific Report and was authored by APR editor.

Construction work for the upcoming 2023 Pacific Games prevented economic collapse for the Solomon Islands during the COVID-19 pandemic, the Pacific country’s prime minister has asserted at a ceremony to mark China’s handover of the recently completed main stadium.  

The 24-nation regional games, which will take place in the Solomon Islands capital Honiara in November, will bring in several thousand athletes and visitors and also are an opportunity for China’s government to highlight its assistance to the Pacific island country after it changed its diplomatic recognition to Beijing from Taiwan in 2019. 

“Without the financial and economic boost brought in by the 2023 Pacific Games projects, our economy would have collapsed,” Solomon Islands Prime Minister Manasseh Sogavare said Friday at the stadium ceremony. 

An aquatic center, also built by China, will be officially handed over to the games hosting authority later this week. 

China has contributed half of the games’ approximate 1.85 billion Solomon Island dollars (U.S.$220 million) cost and the Solomon Islands government nearly one third. Australia, Japan and Indonesia also have made significant contributions.

“The investment brought in by the Pacific Games injected a much-needed boost into our economy and also facilitated progress on other major infrastructure projects,” Sogavare said. He cited a new international airport terminal and Japan’s repairing of the potholed highway between the airport and capital.

The pandemic froze global travel in 2020-21 and also disrupted commerce and trade. Pacific island countries, which were particularly vulnerable to the virus because of existing health burdens, imposed very stringent border closures and suffered high economic costs.

Under Sogavare, the Solomon Islands has sought to benefit from the rivalry in the Pacific between China and the United States by securing more development assistance. The country, an archipelago about 2,100 kilometers (1,300 miles) northeast of Brisbane, Australia, struggles with crumbling roads, limited telecommunications and lack of basic healthcare.

China, over several decades, has become a substantial source of trade, infrastructure and aid for developing Pacific island countries as it seeks to isolate Taiwan diplomatically and build its own set of global institutions. 

The Solomon Islands, home to some 700,000 people, has been Beijing’s highest profile success in building influence among Pacific island countries in recent years. Last year it signed a security pact with China, alarming the U.S. and its allies such as Australia, who fear it could lead to a Chinese military presence in the region.

China’s ambassador to the Solomon Islands, Li Ming, said facilities and infrastructure for the Pacific Games were aligned with the Belt and Road Initiative – China’s sprawling plan to dot the globe with ports, roads, railways and other infrastructure that furthers its trade and economic interests.

“This world-class stadium symbolizes the friendship between China and the Solomon Islands and it also fills the people of Solomon Islands with pride,” Li said.

“The stadium is the best gift to the government and people of Solomon Islands from the People’s Republic of China, at the right time.”

China Civil Engineering Construction Corp., which helped build the 10,000-seat main stadium, will help with its maintenance for two years following the handover, according to Sogavare.

Solomon Islands’ opposition leader Matthew Wale has criticized spending on the games as wasteful, particularly when the country struggles to provide basic healthcare. 

Other critics have said the Games will reinforce lopsided development in the Solomon Islands that mainly benefits the capital and questioned whether the government can afford to maintain the facilities. 

Among the enthusiastic crowd at the handover ceremony was David Tutukiri, a high school principal, who said young people will benefit from having proper sports facilities.

“These facilities are greatly appreciated by ordinary citizens. We are fortunate to have them,” he said. 

Unity Galekausua, a student at King George VI High School in Honiara, said it was a thrill to attend the ceremony.

“This stadium signifies hope for the future,” she said. “With better sports facilities, young people aiming to excel in sports can receive proper training.”

BenarNews is an RFA-affiliated online news organization.

This content originally appeared on Radio Free Asia and was authored by By Gina Maka’a for BenarNews.

The post Incarcerated Deaf Community Finds New Lifeline appeared first on Project Censored.

This content originally appeared on Project Censored and was authored by Vins.

The change was part of a sweeping package of climate bills passed by the California state legislature last night. It includes laws to codify climate neutrality goals, set rules for carbon capture, set interim targets for 100 percent clean energy by 2045, and extend the life of Diablo Canyon, a controversial nuclear power plant that has become a centerpoint of debate in the state’s energy transition. The action comes just one week after California finalized its plan to stop gas-engine car sales by 2035.

“The setback bill was our priority,” said Raquel Mason, policy manager with the California Environmental Justice Alliance. “It’s not often in my time doing this work that we get to go back to our community members with a full win.”

California is littered with 240,000 oil and gas wells and, until now, has had no statewide regulation on how close to homes, schools, and hospitals they can operate. The 2.7 million Californians who live within a half mile of the wells are at higher risk of cancer, asthma, heart disease, and adverse reproductive issues. An investigation by Grist and Capital & Main last year showed that Black, Latino, low-income, and medically underserved communities are disproportionately located near these wells in the state. 

“With this bill, the government listened to community concerns and applied the setback to new wells and to the rework of wells,” said Ann Alexander, an advocate and lawyer with the Natural Resources Defense Council. Now, when neighborhood wells have to obtain rework permits, which they do every few years, they will be denied, progressively them phasing out. 

As of last night, the Golden State also has a new long-term goal to decarbonize its entire economy. California’s previous legally binding emissions goals ended with a target of reducing greenhouse gas emissions by 40 percent by 2030 — a timeline it is not on track to achieve. Now, the state must get to net-zero emissions by 2045.

Net-zero means cutting emissions by some amount, and balancing out any remaining greenhouse gases with actions to suck carbon out of the atmosphere. The bill that California passed requires emission reductions of at least 85 percent.

Lawmakers also passed two bills that dictate how California can achieve this. The first carbon neutrality-related legislation sets down guardrails for developing technologies that capture carbon dioxide from the smokestacks of industrial facilities, as well as “direct air capture” plants that would suck carbon from the atmosphere. The Air Resources Board, a state agency that regulates greenhouse gas emissions, will have to develop monitoring and reporting systems to ensure that these kinds of projects are actually reducing emissions, and create a public database for tracking their deployment. This bill also requires that the captured carbon cannot be injected into oil fields to increase oil production — a practice that is common today. 

The second requires the state to establish new targets for enhancing carbon sinks on natural and working lands, like forests and wetlands. Notably, it separates these targets from the state’s carbon offset market, which enables major polluters in California, like refinery operators, to buy carbon credits from forestry projects to offset their emissions. The program has long been controversial, as it allows dirty industries to keep emitting and the integrity of the carbon credits has been called into question. The natural and working lands bill specifies that any projects receiving state funding for helping to achieve the new goals will not be allowed to generate carbon credits.

In the last hours of the legislative session Wednesday, as California entered a state of emergency heat wave, the vote on Diablo Canyon loomed. California’s last nuclear power plant, operated by Pacific Gas & Electric, or PG&E, the state’s largest private utility, supplies 10 percent of the state’s electricity and was slated to shut down both reactors by 2025. 

For months, Governor Gavin Newsom has been laying the groundwork to keep the power plant open, based on concerns that cutting a major power supply at a time when the power grid is increasingly strained by heat waves might lead to blackouts. 

Opponents of Diablo Canyon raised safety concerns as the aging facility has no permanent place to store nuclear waste and will require expensive updates when funding could instead be spent on renewable energy. The bill that passed last night will grant a $1.4 billion bailout loan to PG&E, extend the life of Diablo Canyon to at least 2030, and allow it to seek a renewed license until 2045. 

Governor Newsom had asked legislators to develop and pass his climate agenda and the Diablo Canyon extension just a few weeks before the end of the legislative session. In the past, the state’s oil lobby and the building trade unions shut down initiatives similar to the ones proposed; this year saw some labor divisions, with individual unions representing electrical, utility, pipe trades, and sheet metal workers coming out in support of the package even while the building trades’ collective lobby stood against it. “They were handing out leaflets in the legislature focusing on aspects that they argue would create jobs,” Assemblymember Al Muratsuchi told Grist last week.

Except for one bill, all of the points in the package passed. A proposal that would have cut the state’s greenhouse gas emissions to 55 percent below 1990 levels, instead of 40 percent, by 2030 was voted down in the assembly. One reason could be because, at the moment, as reported in CalMatters, the state is not on track to reach its current target.

This story was originally published by Grist with the headline Drilling setbacks, net-zero, and a nuclear lifeline. Here’s what just happened in California. on Sep 1, 2022.

This content originally appeared on Grist and was authored by Blanca Begert.