Maine has become the first US state to pass statewide legislation to divest from fossil fuels. LD 99, “An Act To Require the State To Divest Itself of Assets Invested in the Fossil Fuel Industry,” was signed late Wednesday by Governor Janet Mills (D-ME). A divestment plan is now required by 2026.
Maine divests from fossil fuels
The new law directs the $17 billion Maine Public Employee Retirement System to divest $1.3 billion from fossil fuels within five years and directs the Treasury to do the same with other state funds.
The $17.6 billion Maine Public Employee Retirement System currently has more than $1.3 billion invested in fossil fuel companies, including dozens of publicly traded companies such as ExxonMobil and Chevron. About $850 million of the investments in oil and gas companies and utilities are through private equity investment funds.
Eloise Vitelli (D) the majority leader of the Maine Senate, said in a statement to Reuters on June 9:
Fossil fuel industries are simply not as stable as they once were, so a move toward divestment makes both financial sense and supports our overall renewable energy goals.
If Maine can divest responsibly and thoughtfully, there are no more excuses for any other pension fund and legislature in the USA. It is past time for every other public pension to address the mounting climate risk in their portfolios by holding onto fossil fuel investments. These are a ticking time bomb and fiduciaries must act.
According to Maine Youth for Climate Justice, momentum to divest pension and government funds is growing, as both New York City and New York State have recently moved to divest from fossil fuels, and Minnesota dropped coal stocks last year. More than 1,300 institutions with $14 trillion in assets have also committed to some form of fossil fuel divestment.
Kim Kardashian has arrived at court to face a group accused of robbing her at gunpoint nearly a decade ago.
Wearing a black skirt suit, sunglasses, and with her hair pulled back into a chignon, the US reality star walked up the steps accompanied by her mother Kris and a large entourage.
The US reality star greeted the judge with a soft “Hello,” thanking the French authorities for “allowing me to tell my truth”.
Image: Kim Kardashian waves as she arrives at court. Pic: AP
She began by telling the court of her love for Paris, calling it a “magical place,” before becoming tearful when describing the robbery, and talking of her “confusion” when two men entered her room dressed as police officers, accompanied by the handcuffed concierge.
She told the court: “I had fallen asleep naked with a robe on, I was flustered.”
Kardashian will face 10 defendants who it is alleged pulled off one of the most audacious celebrity heists in modern French history in the early hours of 3 October 2016.
Ahead of her in-person appearance, Kardashian’s lawyers said she was ready to “confront” the defendants and intended to do so “with dignity and courage”.
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It’s alleged that five masked men posing as police officers stormed the residence, with two entering Kardashian’s room and robbing her at gunpoint.
Image: Kim Kardashian. Pic: Reuters
Police say the men escaped on bicycles, with around $9m of jewellery, including a $4m engagement ring from Kardashian’s then-husband Kanye West. Most of the jewellery was never recovered.
Earlier on Tuesday, in Paris’s central criminal court, Kardashian’s stylist Simone Harouche described the moment she was woken by the US star’s screams of terror and feared she had been “raped or violated”.
Ms Harouche, 45, who says she has worked for Kardashian for many years and has been friends with her since she was 12, told the court she was woken by “a sound I had never heard from Kim… It was terror”.
Sleeping in a separate apartment, on the next floor down from Kardashian’s, she went on: “What I heard specifically was [Kim saying], ‘I have babies and I need to live – that is what she kept saying… Take everything. I need to live'”.
She told the judge: “When I realised something terrible was going on upstairs and I realised it was not friends [in Kim’s room], I started looking for my telephone and I started looking for something to help save mine and Kim’s life.”
Image: Simone Harouche pictured last year. Pic: Virisa Yong/BFA.com/Shutterstock
She went on to lock herself in her bathroom and hide in her shower, where she called Kardashian’s sister Kourtney and texted her security guard, Pascal Duvier, telling them, “Something is very wrong… Kim is upstairs with men and we need help.”
She says minutes later, Kardashian “hopped” into her room, explaining: “To see my friend with her feet taped and a very light robe with nothing under, and all messed up and pulled, I thought she could have been raped or very violated.”
She said she removed the tape from Kardashian’s feet, and her friend was “beside herself”, adding, “I’ve never seen her like that before. She was screaming, ‘We need to get out, what do we do if they come back? We need to jump from the first floor, we need to get out'”.
Later, when questioned by the lawyer of one of the defendants on why she did not come out of the bathroom, she said: “I’m the kind of person to hide, [Kardashian’s] the kind of person to take care of other people.”
‘Just because a woman wears jewellery, doesn’t make her a target’
When asked by the judge whether she or Kardashian had believed at the time that wearing and sharing images of such expensive jewellery would be a risk, Ms Harouche says: “Just because a woman wears jewellery doesn’t make her a target. That’s like saying because a woman wears a short skirt she deserves to be raped”.
She went on to say: “I think that that moment changed [Kardashian’s] life forever… In terms of security, she doesn’t go alone to places anymore.”
Following the robbery, Ms Harouche says she quit her job as a stylist as the experience “made me fearful of all the things that could happen to celebrities, and being around them”.
Asking for ‘forgiveness’
At the end of her time in the witness stand, the judge attempted to play a video message from one of the defendants, Yunice Abbas.
Image: Kardashian at the Siran Presentation on the day of the robbery. Pic: Matteo Prandoni/BFA/Shutterstock
Mr Abbas, who has admitted his part in the heist, published a book in 2021, titled “I Kidnapped Kim Kardashian”. A court has since ruled he will not benefit financially from it.
A tech issue meant the message would not play, so instead, the judge read out the statement from Mr Abbas, asking for “forgiveness” for his actions. When asked by the judge if she had a reaction to the apology, Ms Harouche answered, “No”.
The trial, which is being held in front of three judges and six jury members, is due to conclude at the end of this week.
This breaking news story is being updated and more details will be published shortly.
Stylist Simone Harouche has told a court that on the night Kim Kardashian was robbed in Paris she was woken by the US star’s screams of terror and feared she had been “raped or violated”.
Wearing a black jacket and bulky gold necklace, Ms Harouche, 45, spoke to Judge David de Pas in the Voltaire room of Paris’s criminal court via an interpreter, describing the robbery that took place in the French capital nearly a decade ago.
Ms Harouche, who says she has worked for Kardashian for many years and has been friends with her from childhood, told the court she was woken by “a sound I had never heard from Kim… It was terror”.
Sleeping in a separate apartment, on the next floor down from Kardashian’s, she went on: “What I heard specifically was [Kim saying], ‘I have babies and I need to live – that is what she kept saying… Take everything. I need to live'”.
She told the judge: “When I realised something terrible was going on upstairs and I realised it was not friends [in Kim’s room] I started looking for my telephone and I started looking for something to help save mine and Kim’s life.”
She went on to lock herself in her bathroom and hide in her shower, where she called Kardashian’s sister Kourtney and texted her security guard, Pascal Duvier, telling them, “Something is very wrong… Kim is upstairs with men and we need help.”
She says minutes later, Kardashian entered her room, explaining: “To see my friend with her feet taped and a very light robe with nothing under, and all messed up and pulled, I thought she could have been raped or very violated.”
More on Kim Kardashian
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She said Kardashian was highly emotional, adding: “She was beside herself, I’ve never seen her like that before. She was screaming, ‘We need to get out, what do we do if they come back? We need to jump from the first floor, we need to get out.'”
Image: Simone Harouche pictured last year. Pic: Virisa Yong/BFA.com/Shutterstock
Describing Kardashian as “not in her body”, she said she thinks the star “was still in trauma” while they waited for help after the robbery, and went on to describe the scene following the incident as “very chaotic”.
Later on Tuesday, Kardashian herself will face 10 defendants who it is alleged pulled off one of the most audacious celebrity heists in modern French history in the early hours of 3 October 2016.
The trial is now entering its third week.
Image: Kardashian at the Siran Presentation on the day of the robbery. Pic: Matteo Prandoni/BFA/Shutterstock
In the French capital for Paris Fashion Week, Kardashian has previously said she was home alone in the early hours of 3 October, while her sister Kourtney and entourage – including her security guard – went out clubbing.
It’s alleged that five masked men posing as police officers stormed the residence, with two entering Kardashian’s room and robbing her at gunpoint.
She says she was then bound and gagged with tape and cable ties and left in the bathtub.
Police say the men escaped on bicycles, with around $9m of jewellery, including a $4m engagement ring from Kardashian’s then-husband Kanye West.
Most of the jewellery was never recovered.
Image: The trial is taking place in Paris’s Palais de Justice. Pic: Reuters
Ahead of her in-person appearance, Kardashian’s lawyers said she was ready to “confront” her Paris attackers and intended to do so “with dignity and courage”.
This breaking news story is being updated and more details will be published shortly.
Father Ted co-creator Graham Linehan has pleaded not guilty to harassing a transgender woman and damaging her phone.
The Bafta-winning writer, who also came up with TV sitcoms The IT Crowd and Black Books, appeared at Westminster Magistrates’ Court on Monday to deny the charges of harassing Sophia Brooks on social media and damaging her mobile in October.
Linehan, 56, who created the three-season sitcom Father Ted in the 1990s with fellow Irish writer Arthur Mathews, said in a post on X in April that the allegations were related to an incident at the Battle of Ideas conference in London on 19 October.
Court documents show Linehan is charged with harassing the alleged victim, a transgender activist, by posting abusive comments about her on social media between 11 October and 27 October, and damaging her phone to the value of £369 on the day of the conference.
Outside court after the short hearing, he wore a T-shirt with a picture of a Daily Telegraph front page with the headline ‘Trans women are not women’, and said: “For six years, ever since I began defending the rights of women and children against a dangerous ideology, I have faced harassment, abuse and threats.
“I’ve lost a great deal, but I am still here, and I will not waver in my resolve.”
