Good morning. A sweeping U.S. climate-disclosure rule isn’t yet in place, and it is sure to face legal challenges when it is, but many companies have begun assessing greenhouse-gas emissions from parties in their supply chain as if it were.

• Background: The Securities and Exchange Commission’s rule—which would require public companies to report climate-related risks and emissions data, including so-called Scope 3 emissions that come from a company’s supply chain—is expected to be brought in soon. The agency issued the proposal in March 2022 as President Biden’s efforts to address global warming through legislation stalled in Congress.
   
• Pushback: Republican officials in several states say the agency has overstepped its mandate in trying to address the complex challenges posed by greenhouse-gas emissions. A group of state attorneys general has warned the SEC to abandon its effort or face “strife.”
   
• Treating it as a done deal: But many companies, pushed by a variety of groups—including sustainability-focused shareholders, regulators in other jurisdictions and eco-conscious consumers—are proceeding as though the rule is in force. About 70% of companies intend to comply with the SEC rule regardless of when it becomes final, according to a survey released in March by accounting firm PwC and reporting software company Workiva Inc.

Related:

• Climate-Disclosure Rules Are Coming. Here’s How Firms Are Adapting

The Risk & Compliance Forum on May 9 will feature speakers including Glenn Leon, chief of the fraud section at the Justice Department, Assistant Secretary for Export Enforcement Matthew Axelrod, Elizabeth Atlee, chief ethics & compliance officer at CBRE and Sidney Majalya, chief risk officer at Binance.US. You can register here.

American lawyer pleads guilty over work for sanctioned Russian oligarch.

A New York lawyer has pleaded guilty to criminal charges stemming from payments he made for Russian oligarch Viktor Vekselberg, the latest in a crackdown on the white-collar professionals who federal prosecutors say are key enablers of the Kremlin’s sanctions-evasion efforts.

The case: The lawyer, Robert Wise, helped Mr. Vekselberg make about $3.8 million in payments to maintain six properties in New York and Florida owned by the Russian billionaire, prosecutors say. The Pelham, N.Y., resident pleaded guilty in Manhattan federal court Tuesday to one count of conspiring to commit international money laundering and agreed to pay $210,000.

Tobacco company BAT pleads guilty to volating U.S. sanctions on North Korea.

British American Tobacco PLC agreed to pay more than $635 million to resolve charges that it conspired to violate U.S. sanctions by selling cigarettes to North Korea in what Justice Department officials described as a brazen scheme to conceal illicit business by routing it through a third-party company in Singapore. The settlement payment was the largest penalty ever levied on a company for violating U.S. sanctions on Pyongyang.

• South Korean prosecutors charged Daniel Shin, who with Do Kwon co-founded the company behind the failed TerraUSD and Luna cryptocurrencies.
   
• The world’s most far-reaching digital-content law will oblige 19 social-media, search and e-commerce services to comply with strict new rules by late August.
   
• U.S. law-enforcement officials said Tuesday they are resolved to combat discrimination and bias arising from the use of artificial intelligence in areas such as lending, housing and hiring, as growing adoption of automated systems such as ChatGPT gains attention from Washington.

U.S. Treasury looks to curb ‘de-risking’ at banks.

The Biden administration is looking to address actions taken by U.S. banks to unbank certain customers and groups over their perceived connections to higher money-laundering risks.

In a report published Tuesday, the Treasury Department spelled out the problems de-risking poses and offered policy recommendations to address the issue, among them setting clear supervisory guidance while keeping the effects of de-risking in mind.

• Russian jet fighters and drones are harassing U.S. forces in Syria with increasing frequency, according to American officials, creating new risks of a deadly miscalculation between the two military superpowers.
   
• The outcry over Bud Light’s partnership with a transgender advocate could cause brands to rethink whether and how they address contentious social issues, putting in question an increasingly common strategy for marketers as they try to reach younger consumers.
   
• A nationwide freight slowdown has helped cut U.S. diesel prices by half from last year’s record, raising concerns that parts of the world’s largest economy have begun to slow.
   
• A bipartisan bill set to be introduced in Congress this week would offer a tax credit for establishing rare-earth magnet production in the U.S., a crucial component for the clean-energy transition. MP Materials efforts to build a local supply chain demonstrate the challenge for American producers.

• First Republic Bank shares lost about half their value Tuesday, a day after the bank reported first-quarter results that showed a deposit hemorrhage in March that was worse than expected.
   
• Consumers remained willing to pay more for burgers, soda, diapers and other everyday items in the beginning of the year, lifting sales of companies including McDonald’s Corp., PepsiCo Inc., and Kimberly-Clark Corp.
   
• General Motors Co. raised its full-year profit outlook, citing consumers’ willingness to spend big on high-end models, even as the company tightens its own belt.
   
• President Biden opened his 2024 re-election campaign by casting Republicans as a danger to democracy and abortion rights, while the GOP countered that the presidential contest would pivot on the faltering economy and Mr. Biden’s age.
   
• Russia is piling pressure on Ukraine and Western governments over a deal that reopened key Ukrainian ports for vital grain exports, renewing threats to back out of the agreement that lowered global food prices last year.

WSJ Pro Private Equity is launching our latest annual survey of secondary market buyers. Now in its ninth year, our annual report on secondary buyers dives deep into a range of issues that shape secondary transactions, including pricing, deal structures, use of leverage and so much more. If you are a secondary investor you can access the survey at this link.