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Companies Johnson & Johnson FollowApril 27 (Reuters) - Johnson & Johnson (JNJ.N) said on Thursday it has agreed to retain all talc-related liabilities arising from litigation in the United States and Canada and will "indemnify" newly formed consumer health unit Kenvue for all costs. "As unequivocally and unambiguously stated, Johnson & Johnson has agreed to retain all the talc-related liabilities -and indemnify Kenvue for any and all costs - arising from litigation in the United States and Canada. Any suggestion to the contrary is false and misleading," Erik Haas, vice president of litigation, Johnson & Johnson, said in a statement. The news comes as Johnson & Johnson (J&J) seeks a valuation of up to $42.95 billion for Kenvue in its initial public offering. Their lawsuit claims Justin Bergeron contracted mesothelioma, a cancer associated with asbestos exposure, as a result of using J&J talc, FT reported.

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Companies Meta Platforms Inc FollowWASHINGTON, April 27 (Reuters) - A U.S. appeals court on Thursday refused to revive a lawsuit filed by states against Meta's (META.O) Facebook that alleged the company had broken antitrust law. Dozens of states led by New York asked the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia last year to reinstate the lawsuit, which U.S. District Judge James Boasberg of the District of Columbia rejected, saying they had waited too long to file. The three-judge unanimous appeals court panel said it agreed that "the states unduly delayed in bringing suit." Both were publicized," Circuit Judge A. Raymond Randolph wrote, noting that the FTC had investigated both transactions. Neither the New York attorney general's office nor Facebook immediately responded to a request for comment.

Under questioning from her lawyers on Wednesday, Carroll testified in graphic detail about how Trump allegedly assaulted her in a department store dressing room in the mid-1990s. Trump has consistently denied the allegations and claimed that Carroll made them up to sell books and hurt him politically. Lawyers for Carroll are expected to resume their questioning on Thursday, and Trump's team will then get to cross-examine her. He scorned the case in Wednesday posts on his Truth Social platform, saying Carroll was promoting a "fraudulent & false story" and calling her lawyer a "political operative." U.S. District Judge Lewis Kaplan warned that Trump could face more legal problems if he kept discussing the case outside of court, and twice advised Trump's legal team to speak with the former president about it.

April 26 (Reuters) - Former U.S. President Donald Trump has lost an appeal to block former Vice President Mike Pence from testifying in the special counsel probe into efforts to overturn the results of the 2020 presidential election, CNN reported on Wednesday. Earlier this month, Trump lawyers filed the appeal after a ruling related to the Justice Department investigation of efforts to undermine the election that Trump, a Republican, lost to Democrat Joe Biden. However, Pence disclosed that he would not appeal a judge's ruling that requires him to testify to a federal grand jury about conversations he had with Trump leading up to the deadly attack on the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021. A representative for Trump did not immediately respond to a Reuters request for comment. Reporting by Sheena K Thomas in Bengaluru; Editing by Raju GopalakrishnanOur Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

[1/6] Photo evidence collected during the investigation into U.S. Air National Guardsman Jack Teixeira, who is accused of leaking classified documents online, is released in a document by the U.S. Department of Justice. Department of Justice/Handout via REUTERSApril 26 (Reuters) - U.S. Air National Guardsman Jack Teixeira, accused of leaking classified documents online, may still have access to classified materials, federal prosecutors said in court documents filed on Wednesday. Teixeira also "took steps to obstruct the government's investigation" into the leaks, prosecutors said, in a motion filed ahead of a hearing into his detention. "His release would heighten the risk that he would make further unauthorized disclosures of classified national defense information," prosecutors said in the documents. The motion said that in February 2022 Teixeira began to access hundreds of classified documents that had no bearing on his job.

April 26 (Reuters) - A California judge on Wednesday tentatively ordered Tesla CEO Elon Musk to be interviewed under oath about whether he made certain statements regarding the safety and capabilities of the carmaker’s Autopilot features. Plaintiff attorneys sought to depose Musk regarding recorded statements that tout the capabilities of Autopilot. Right now.”Tesla, however, opposed the request in court filings, arguing that Musk cannot recall details about statements. The lawsuit is scheduled to go into trial on July 31, adding to growing legal and regulatory scrutiny over Tesla's Autopilot system. A California state court jury on Friday found Tesla's Autopilot feature did not fail in what appeared to be the first trial related to a crash involving the partially automated driving software.

☆ Despite tough talk, Ron DeSantis can’t shake Disney’s grip on Florida
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-26 | by ( Allison Morrow | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +5 min

Although Disney has thwarted the state’s most aggressive efforts against it, Ron DeSantis has repeatedly promised he will win out in the end. In the governor’s effort to wrest control of Disney’s Orlando-area theme parks, he found that Disney’s corporate lawyers have routinely outmaneuvered him. “The question is, how much are you willing to hurt everybody else?”Legally, he says, DeSantis can’t single out Disney explicitly because retaliation against a single company is unconstitutional. To be sure, Disney’s parks division is a huge part of its business. In other words: Florida needs Disney more than Disney needs Florida.

Circuit Court of Appeals, called the April 7 order by U.S. District Judge Matthew Kacsmaryk "abrupt and profoundly disruptive." The 5th Circuit is preparing to hear May 17 arguments on the matter after the U.S. Supreme Court last week put on hold Kacsmaryk's order. Danco Laboratories, which manufactures the brand-name version of the drug, was due to make a separate filing with the 5th Circuit. A panel of three 5th Circuit judges is scheduled to hear arguments on whether to uphold Kacsmaryk's order. The 5th Circuit has a conservative reputation, with 12 of its 16 active judges appointed by Republican presidents.

April 26 (Reuters) - With more and more lawyers at major law firms using fast-advancing generative artificial intelligence tools, legal AI startup Harvey said Wednesday that it raised $21 million in fresh investor cash. Sequoia Capital, which is leading the Series A fundraising round, said more than 15,000 law firms are on a waiting list to start using Harvey. The company says it builds custom large language models for law firms. Technology companies and investors have rushed to embrace large language model-based generative AI since Microsoft-backed OpenAI's ChatGPT debuted in November. Casetext in March released its AI legal assistant product, CoCounsel, which uses GPT-4 to speed up tasks like legal research, contract analysis and document review.

☆ Bannon associate sentenced to more than 4 years for fraud over Trump border wall
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-26 | by ( Luc Cohen | Thomson Reuters | Reports On The New York Federal Courts. Previously Worked As A Correspondent In Venezuela | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

Kolfage, 41, pleaded guilty last year to misappropriating funds meant for the "We Build the Wall" campaign. Andrew Badolato, 58, another former Bannon associate, also pleaded guilty and was sentenced to three years in prison at the same hearing. "The fraud perpetrated by Mr. Kolfage and Mr. Badolato went well beyond ripping off individual donors," Torres told the hearing. He also pleaded guilty to tax charges. In September, Bannon, 69, was indicted in New York state court in Manhattan on money laundering and conspiracy charges over the planned wall.

The dispute concerns Minnesota's tax regime under which the state takes "absolute title" of a property if an owner fails to pay property taxes for five years. Tyler's attorneys said in a court filing that 13 other states have similar policies that let government or private investors benefit when collecting delinquent property taxes. She owed $15,000, including roughly $2,300 in property taxes, as well as penalties, interests and costs. States have long permitted forfeitures of an entire property for neglecting to pay taxes, which are a reasonable condition of property ownership, the county said. Rulings in this case and any others not yet decided by the Supreme Court are due by the end of June.

[1/5] Singer Ed Sheeran arrives at Manhattan Federal Court for his copyright trial in New York City, U.S., April 25, 2023. "We don't allow dancing," U.S. District Judge Louis Stanton instructed the seven-member jury. The trial is the first of three Sheeran could face from lawsuits over similarities between the two hits. Sheeran is expected to testify again later in the trial as part of the defense case. If the jury finds Sheeran liable for copyright infringement, the trial will enter a second phase to determine how much he and his labels owe in damages.

She told jurors they would also hear testimony from two other women who say Trump sexually assaulted them, which Trump denies. Trump's lawyer Joe Tacopina countered in his opening statement that the evidence will show the former U.S. president did not assault Carroll. Trump pleaded not guilty to 34 felony counts on April 4 at a New York state courthouse, a three-minute walk from Tuesday's trial. Trump did not attend the trial and is not required to, and according to lawyers from both sides is unlikely to testify. Carroll is also suing Trump for defamation after he first denied her rape claim in June 2019, when he was still president.

[1/2] Police officers guard the Tree of Life synagogue following Saturday's shooting at the synagogue in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, U.S., October 28, 2018. REUTERS/Aaron JosefczykApril 24 (Reuters) - The man accused of opening fire and killing 11 worshippers in a Pittsburgh synagogue in the deadliest antisemitic attack in U.S. history faces a potential death sentence at the end of a federal trial that begins on Monday with jury selection. Robert Bowers, 50, is accused of dozens of charges, including 11 counts of hate crimes resulting in death, in a massacre that unfolded at Pittsburgh's Tree of Life synagogue on Oct. 27, 2018. In seeking the death penalty, federal prosecutors will try to prove aggravating factors in their case against Bowers, including that he substantially planned the attack and that he targeted vulnerable victims. Federal authorities said Bowers entered the synagogue in the city’s Squirrel Hill neighborhood where many residents are Jewish, armed with multiple firearms.

At issue is whether a public official's social media activity can amount to governmental action bound by First Amendment limits on government regulation of speech. The Garniers sued O'Connor-Ratcliff and Zane in federal court, claiming their free speech rights under the First Amendment were violated. Zane and O'Connor-Ratcliff each had public Facebook pages identifying them as government officials, according to the Garniers' court filing. O'Connor-Ratcliff also had a public Twitter profile. Circuit Court of Appeals last July agreed, finding that the school board members had presented their social media accounts as "channels of communication with the public" about school board business.

That is because algorithms that power generative AI tools like ChatGPT and its successor GPT-4 operate in a somewhat similar way as those that suggest videos to YouTube users, the experts added. While the case does not directly relate to generative AI, Justice Neil Gorsuch noted that AI tools that generate "poetry" and "polemics" likely would not enjoy such legal protections. Section 230 protections generally apply to third-party content from users of a technology platform and not to information a company helped to develop. 'CONSEQUENCES OF THEIR OWN ACTIONS'Democratic Senator Ron Wyden, who helped draft that law while in the House of Representatives, said the liability shield should not apply to generative AI tools because such tools "create content." They said tools like ChatGPT operate like search engines, directing users to existing content in response to a query.

It is considered the first criminal insider trading case involving such assets. "He abused that position of trust," prosecutors said in an April 4 filing. He added that if prosecutors mention insider trading, "there is a substantial danger of undue prejudice and confusion of the jury." "Is it insider trading of anything?" "If this case sticks, there is precedent that insider trading theory can be applied to any asset class."

☆ Factbox: Industry targets of U.S. Republicans' anti-ESG efforts
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-22 | by ( Ross Kerber | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +3 min

Here is a look at major efforts and, in some cases, their impact on specific industries. In addition, legislation pending in states, including Texas and Florida, aims to limit the consideration of ESG factors by pension funds, which could cut off fund firms from public contracts. Top fund firms such as BlackRock Inc (BLK.N) and State Street Corp (STT.N) - both NZAM members - have said their ESG efforts only support clients concerns, for instance the view that climate change poses investment risks. Several of the bills have been passed into law in states including Mississippi and West Virginia. Republicans failed to gain control of the U.S. Senate in elections held Nov. 8, however, limiting their investigative powers.

[1/2] Former U.S. President Donald Trump departs from Trump Tower to give a deposition to New York Attorney General Letitia James who sued Trump and his Trump Organization, in New York City, U.S., April 13, 2023. Former Manhattan prosecutor Mark Pomerantz will testify May 12, a spokesperson for the chairman of the House of Representatives Judiciary Committee said. The committee subpoenaed him in connection with the probe that led to Trump becoming the first ex-president to be criminally charged. Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg, a Democrat, sued Jim Jordan, the Republican chair of the committee, to block the subpoena. Trump, the Republican front-runner in the 2024 presidential nominating campaign, pleaded not guilty on April 4 to 34 felony charges.

April 21 (Reuters) - Paramount Global (PARA.O) has agreed to pay $167.5 million to investors to settle a case stemming from the 2019 merger of Viacom Inc and CBS Corp that created the entertainment company, a filing showed. Paramount and the investors agreed to the settlement reached on April 18, according to a Securities and Exchange Commission filing published on Friday. Paramount did not respond to a Reuters request for comment. Paramount reached a $122.5 million settlement in March with Viacom shareholders that also stemmed from the merger. Reporting by Shubhendu Deshmukh in Bengaluru; Editing by Leslie AdlerOur Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

HOW DID THE CASE GET TO THE SUPREME COURT? The Biden administration and Danco immediately asked the Supreme Court to overrule the 5th Circuit and impose an emergency stay. WHAT DID THE SUPREME COURT DO? The injunction was not at issue before the Supreme Court, and remains in effect. Once it does come, the losing side will again have the chance to appeal to the 5th Circuit and, eventually, the Supreme Court.

[1/2] A Tesla Model 3 vehicle drives on autopilot along the 405 highway in Westminster, California, U.S., March 16, 2022. Tesla denied liability for the accident and said in a court filing that Hsu used Autopilot on city streets, despite a user manual warning against doing so. "This case should be a wakeup call to Tesla owners: they can't over-rely on Autopilot, and they really need to be ready to take control and Tesla is not a self-driving system," he said. The Hsu trial unfolded in Los Angeles Superior Court over three weeks, with testimony from three Tesla engineers. The main question in Autopilot cases was who is responsible for an accident while a car is in driver-assistant Autopilot mode - a human driver, the machine, or both?

[1/2] Alec Baldwin attends the 2022 Robert F. Kennedy Human Rights Ripple of Hope Award Gala in New York City, U.S., December 6, 2022. REUTERS/Andrew KellyTAOS, New Mexico, April 21 (Reuters) - New Mexico special prosecutors dropped charges against actor Alec Baldwin in the shooting death of "Rust" cinematographer Halyna Hutchins on Friday, marking what legal experts said was a logical conclusion to a flawed prosecution. The move followed new evidence about the gun Baldwin was holding when it fired the bullet that killed Hutchins during the movie's filming, a person close to state prosecutors said. "The case is dismissed without prejudice and the investigation is active and ongoing," prosecutors Kari Morrissey and Jason Lewis said in a filing. Special prosecutors said on Thursday they might refile charges against Baldwin once new evidence was examined.

The district attorney, Democrat Alvin Bragg, had earlier this week appealed a lower court's ruling that the Republican-led House of Representatives committee may depose Mark Pomerantz, who led the Trump probe before resigning in February 2022. Pomerantz's testimony had been scheduled for Thursday, but the 2nd U.S. In papers filed on Friday, Jordan said the subpoena was covered by a constitutional protection for "speech or debate" in Congress. He said Pomerantz's testimony was necessary for the committee to consider possible legislation to "help protect current and former Presidents from potentially politically motivated prosecutions." Bragg has said Pomerantz's testimony could improperly reveal confidential information related to his office's probe, and that Congress did not have oversight of state-level criminal cases.

The prospective class action complaint, filed in 2021 by two members of the annual paid subscription service Amazon Prime, alleged Amazon was unlawfully "tying" the online sale of third-party products to the use of the company's "Fulfillment by Amazon" program. The lawsuit said Amazon's alleged anticompetitive fulfillment practices had harmed "hundreds of millions of its loyal customers." Amazon's attorneys argued that fulfillment services are sold not to consumers who buy products but to third-party businesses that are selling goods on the company's platform. The antitrust case against Amazon was among private and state actions alleging violations of competition law. The case is Angela Hogan et al v. Amazon.com Inc, U.S. District Court, Western District of Washington, No.

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