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By Sharon Kimathi, Energy and ESG Editor, Reuters Digital
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Hello!
Companies in the United States are facing claims from a group founded by former Trump administration officials that efforts to diversify their workforces amount to illegal discrimination. This comes as U.S. judges have been dismissing discrimination lawsuits across the nation this week that were originally filed in 2020 after a Minneapolis police officer’s murder of George Floyd sparked a nationwide focus on racial injustice.
America First Legal urged the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) to investigate gaming company Activision Blizzard’s alleged use of gender and racial preferences in hiring and internship programs, after lodging a similar complaint against Kellogg earlier this month.
America First has filed complaints with the EEOC involving Target Corp, Progressive Insurance, Starbucks, McDonald’s, Morgan Stanley, Anheuser-Busch Companies and Hershey Co, among other companies designated on its website as “woke corporations.”
The complaints come as many experts expect an uptick in challenges to corporate diversity programs following a U.S. Supreme Court ruling in June that prohibited race-conscious college admissions policies.
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Supporters of the America First ideology participate in a “Stop the Steal” and “Million MAGA March” protests in Washington, U.S. November 14, 2020. REUTERS/Leah Millis
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“Race-neutral” content moderation
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Meanwhile, a U.S. federal judge dismissed a lawsuit accusing YouTube of restricting or removing videos from Black and Hispanic content creators because of their race.
U.S. District Judge Vince Chhabria in San Francisco said that although the idea that YouTube’s algorithm could discriminate based on race is plausible, the plaintiffs “do not come close” to suggesting they suffered any discrimination.
The proposed class action on behalf of nine non-white plaintiffs said YouTube, owned by Alphabet’s Google, subjected their videos to more restrictions than similar videos from white contributors, violating a contractual obligation under its terms of service to provide race-neutral content moderation.
But the judge said YouTube promised only that its algorithm would not treat people differently based on their identities, not that the algorithm was infallible.
Lawyers for the plaintiffs did not immediately respond to requests for comment. YouTube and its lawyers did not immediately respond to similar requests. Chhabria dismissed the case with prejudice, meaning it cannot be brought again, after the complaint had been amended five times.
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Elsewhere, Wells Fargo won the dismissal of a lawsuit accusing the fourth-largest U.S. bank of defrauding shareholders by touting its commitment to hiring diversity while its managers were conducting sham interviews of non-white and female job candidates.
U.S. District Judge Trina Thompson in San Francisco said that while reasonable investors would not expect Wells Fargo to conduct interviews for jobs that had already been filled, shareholders failed to show that fake interviews were widespread or even took place.
The plaintiffs in the proposed class action must “allege more than that the sham interviews were an open secret,” Thompson wrote. “While Wells Fargo’s history provides some context for the allegedly misleading statements, it is not sufficient to confer [intent to defraud].”
The bank is facing a raft of class action lawsuits against its discriminatory lending practices against Black and Hispanic Americans. In 2012, the U.S. Justice Department ordered the bank to pay $175 million for its violation of fair-lending laws against their Black and Hispanic borrowers.
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And finally, a California federal judge ruled for a second time that a worker advocacy group lacks standing to pursue claims that Darden Restaurants Inc discriminates against female and minority servers by requiring them to depend on tips.
U.S. District Judge Edward Chen in San Francisco said One Fair Wage (OFW) had not shown that the policy at Darden, the largest U.S. restaurant operator, caused any injury to the group that would allow it to proceed with the 2020 lawsuit.
The group claims tipped Darden employees are more likely to be sexually harassed by customers and coworkers and that minorities earn less from tips than their white counterparts.
Chen gave OFW 30 days to file an amended complaint “to sufficiently allege a nexus between the injury to Darden employees and OFW’s organizational injury.” The group did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Nor did Orlando, Florida-based Darden.
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A screengrab taken on Aug 17, 2023 from a Google Street View shows an entrance to Correctional Center 2, women’s prison, Phnom Penh, Cambodia. Google Street View/Reuters
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- Walmart and Centric Brands are investigating their supply chains in Cambodia over allegations that inmates at the country’s largest women’s prison were illegally employed to produce garments for export, following questions posed by Reuters and inquiries from a U.S. industry group about labor practices there.
- The first tropical storm to hit Los Angeles in more than 80 years unleashed floods across parts of Southern California more accustomed to drought, as officials urged the public to stay safe as they began to count the cost of damage.
- Hawaiian authorities have confirmed that the Aug. 8 fires killed at least 114 people on the island. But only a few of those have been identified and hundreds more are still unaccounted for as a search for human remains continues, leaving Maui stuck in a limbo of uncertain grief almost two weeks later.
- Nearly 5,000 New Zealand senior doctors and dentists will go on strike on Sept. 5 for the first time ever after pay negotiations failed, the union representing the medical staff said in a statement.
- Artist Carmen Rose used to perform regularly in Malaysia, until a police raid last year put an end to the veteran drag queen’s act and fuelled the fears of the LGBTQ community at a time when Islamists are rapidly gaining political clout.
- Graphic: Reuters has reviewed at least 142 bills that restrict gender-affirming healthcare for trans and gender-expansive people this year, taking stock of where they stand in the approval process, the treatments they seek to restrict and the penalties they would impose. Click here for more.
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MaryAnne Howland, director of Equity, Inclusion and Justice (EIJ) at U.S.-based business consultancy BSR, shares her thoughts on what’s at risk without affirmative action:
“With or without affirmative action, business leaders that double down on EIJ and the ‘S’ (social) in ESG are most likely to enjoy the long-term gains of a multi-racial marketplace.
“Building a diverse, low-carbon economy built with an infrastructure of essential services that serves the needs of our whole society, requires the creative minds of top talent to innovate sustainable growth solutions that include varied lived experiences and vision empathetic to the common good.
“Industries centered in the conflict of the worst global disparities – healthcare, financial services, food, environment, housing, agriculture, among the top – are best understood by those who have been victim or adjacent to the suffering and know best the solutions.
“It requires ambitious, enterprising, entrepreneurs to provide value chain solutions that can help transform a company’s impact and bottom line.”
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Breakingviews: To step up the fight against climate change, World Bank President Ajay Banga wants to overhaul the lender’s balance sheet without overturning its credit rating. The bank’s new chief has a golden opportunity to expand the bank’s reach, thanks to support from U.S. Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen. At least $200 billion in extra resources each year need to materialize for the bank to do its part.
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Marc Carey, CEO of Evolution Music, holds a bioplastic record made with a sugar-based alternative to vinyl, in London, Britain Sep. 8, 2022. REUTERS/Stuart McDill
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Today’s spotlight focuses on decarbonization efforts in the music and shipping industry, from sugar-based alternatives to vinyl records to wind assisted propulsion on ships.
UK-based Evolution Music says its bioplastic can be used to create records and is aimed at making it easy for labels and artists to stop using PVC without altering record pressing plants’ existing machinery or production processes.
Recording artists will be keen to change to bioplastic for their physical products according to a co-founder of Music Declares Emergency (MDE), a music industry climate action campaign group that started as a declaration by nearly 3000 artists ranging from Napalm Death to Julian Lloyd Weber.
“The production of vinyl is toxic in very many ways and there are all kinds of processes in it that are damaging to the environment, but we like vinyl. What’s the solution? Find a non-toxic way of doing it. Hey, presto, here we have it,” said Lewis Jamieson, a co-founder of MDE.
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Pyxis Ocean retrofitted with WindWings sets sail during its maiden voyage, in this undated handout picture, Mid-Sea, August 2023. Cargill/Handout via Reuters
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Elsewhere, a Cargill chartered dry bulk ship has launched on its first voyage since being fitted with special sails, aiming to study how harnessing wind power can cut emissions and energy usage in the shipping sector, the U.S. commodities group said.
The maritime industry – which accounts for nearly 3% of global CO2 emissions and is under pressure from investors and environmental groups to accelerate decarbonisation – is exploring several different technologies including ammonia and methanol in an effort to move away from dirtier bunker fuel.
Cargill, one of the world’s biggest ship charterers, has been exploring wind assisted propulsion as one cleaner energy option. Wind was a common way of propelling ships before the switch to steam and diesel engines but is now mostly used only for smaller vessels.
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“Choosing to hire diversely has obvious societal benefits. It means that previously marginalized groups can participate in the economy at much higher levels, and it also comes with significant business benefits. The higher up the organization those hires climb, the greater the accrued benefits.”
Funmi Dele-Giwa, general counsel and group company secretary at South-Africa-based financial firm, MFS Africa
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- Aug. 23, Basra, Iraq: Fishing activities are dwindling due to decreasing fish produce in Iraq’s southern city of Basra, forcing fishermen to look for more fish in Kuwaiti and Iranian waters. While many of them have been arrested due to such activities, fishermen say some of them have been forced to sell their boats and quit their jobs.
- Aug. 24, Gaza, Palestine: Climate change has helped cut production of grapes in the blockaded Gaza Strip almost in half this year as higher temperatures impacted the pollination, the Palestinian agriculture ministry and farmers said.
- Aug. 25, Cox’s Bazar, Bangladesh: The day marks six years of suffering of Rohingya Muslims, most of whom fled Myanmar during a military crackdown in 2017, and have been living in a cluster of refugee camps in southern Bangladesh since their exodus from Myanmar.
- Aug. 28, Washington D.C., United States: The day marks 60 years since civil rights leader Dr. Martin Luther King gave his “I have a Dream” speech on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial during the March on Washington.
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