Hello!
We're continuing with the theme of environmental, social, and governance (ESG) rollbacks in the United States this week, but this time, I’ll also be looking beyond government actions to examine developments in the corporate sphere. Let’s start with anti-ESG executive orders from President Donald Trump’s administration.
This week, the U.S. Supreme Court allowed Trump's administration to implement his ban on transgender people in the military. The president's directive was one of a series of steps he has taken to curb transgender rights.
The ban will allow the armed forces to discharge the thousands of current transgender troops and reject new recruits while legal challenges play out. The court granted the Justice Department's request to lift a federal judge's nationwide order blocking the military from carrying out Trump's prohibition on transgender people serving in the military.
The court has a 6-3 conservative majority. Its three liberal justices - Sonia Sotomayor, Elena Kagan and Ketanji Brown Jackson - publicly dissented from the decision. Also on my radar today: |
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Demonstrators take part in the 'Stand with Rumeysa Ozturk Emergency Rally', at Powder House Square Park in Somerville, Massachusetts, U.S. REUTERS/Faith Ninivaggi |
Elsewhere, the Trump administration urged a U.S. appeals court to allow immigration authorities to continue to detain two students – Rumeysa Ozturk from Tufts University and Mohsen Mahdawi from Columbia University – who were arrested after engaging in pro-Palestinian advocacy on campus. The administration wants their deportation challenges to be handled exclusively in immigration courts, not federal district courts, while the students' attorneys argue that their clients were unlawfully detained for making constitutionally protected statements critical of Israel's actions during the Gaza war.
Mahdawi, born in a refugee camp in the West Bank, said he was arrested last month upon arriving for an interview for his U.S. citizenship petition in Vermont in retaliation for his advocacy against Israel's war and role in student protests.
Lawyers for Ozturk, a Turkish national and PhD student, say she was arrested in March for co-authoring a pro-Palestinian opinion piece in Tufts' student newspaper. "She has been held behind bars for six weeks while her health deteriorates for writing an op-ed," said Esha Bhandari, her lawyer at the American Civil Liberties Union.
Judges have expressed concerns over the legality of their prolonged detentions without court access, highlighting tensions between immigration enforcement and First Amendment rights. |
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Reuters sustainable business correspondent Ross Kerber explored what some companies have been doing since the Trump administration’s campaign against federal and corporate diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) efforts.
He found that U.S. companies are reporting fewer race and gender details about their directors. Kerber spoke to Josh Ramer, CEO of New Jersey company DiversIQ which tracks disclosures for investors and corporate clients who was shocked by the extent of the pullback.
Among S&P 500 companies making proxy filings this year, 54% gave fewer director demographic details than in 2024; last year only 7% of those companies gave fewer details. Click here for the full column. |
Berkshire Hathaway, ABA and Novo Nordisk |
This week, Berkshire Hathaway shareholders rejected a resolution requiring the company to report on risks from its subsidiaries' race-based initiatives, one of seven proposals tied to diversity, artificial intelligence and other issues that were voted down.
Shareholders also voted against a resolution that Berkshire report on how its business practices affect employees based on race, color, religion, sex, national origin and political views.
Meanwhile, the American Bar Association will extend the suspension of its law school diversity and inclusion rule through August 2026.
The ABA’s Council of the Section of Legal Education and Admission to the Bar will consider a recommendation to further defer enforcement of its longstanding diversity rule, which was first suspended in February after Trump’s series of anti-DEI executive orders.
Elsewhere, the obesity drugmaker Novo Nordisk said it will drop gender representation requirements for senior leadership positions in its U.S. business due to the executive orders by Trump to stop DEI initiatives.
In its first-quarter earnings statement, the company said that its U.S. operations will be excluded from meeting its global minimum 45% representation for each gender by the end of 2025. |
A Palestinian mother feeds her sick daughter as she receives treatment at Nasser Hospital, in Khan Younis, in the southern Gaza Strip. REUTERS/Hatem Khaled |
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Gaza aid: With Gaza's fields inaccessible to civilians and its seas barred to fishermen, the territory depends almost entirely on food from outside, but the last delivery Israel allowed was on March 2, the final day of the ceasefire. Rising health problems are also affecting Palestinians as medical charity MSF said it was seeing an increase in patients coming to hospitals with chronic diseases such as diabetes and hypertension who lack enough food or food with sufficient protein, nutrients and vitamins. Click here for the full story.
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The Barrick Gold v Mali saga: Barrick CEO Mark Bristow told Reuters that the company spends $15 million monthly to keep its Mali mine running but doesn't know where the government stores its share of the gold. He also said Mali had broken agreements and called the jailing of employees a human rights violation. Last month, authorities shut Barrick’s Bamako office over alleged unpaid taxes, deepening a dispute over a 2023 mining code that grants the government a larger stake in the mine. And at least four subcontractors said they have not received payments from Barrick for months and resulted in laying off staff.
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Indigenous rights: A U.S. federal judge will decide by May 14 whether to block the Trump administration from transferring Arizona land to Rio Tinto and BHP for a copper mine opposed by the San Carlos Apache, whose religious rights are at the center of a legal battle highlighting tensions between indigenous rights, the energy transition, and global mineral supply chains.
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Ant-traffickers: A Kenyan court fined four men $7,700 each for attempting to traffic roughly 5,440 giant African harvester ant queens, which Kenyan prosecutors valued at around 1.2 million Kenyan shillings ($9,300). Authorities arrested two Belgian teenagers, a Vietnamese man and a Kenyan national on April 5, accusing them of trying to smuggle ants out of the country, in a case that wildlife experts say signals a shift in biopiracy from iconic animals like elephants to lesser-known species.
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Sexual harassment: Four anonymous housekeepers sued Motown singer and songwriter Smokey Robinson for $50 million, alleging that he sexually assaulted them for years while his wife covered up the abuse and contributed to a hostile work environment. The plaintiffs accused Robinson of sexual battery, assault, false imprisonment and gender violence at his home in Los Angeles, starting as early as 2007 and continuing until 2024. Representatives for Robinson did not immediately respond to requests for comment and the accusations could not be independently verified.
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Factories in China, mostly shut out of the U.S. market for over a decade by high import duties, have been boosting solar panel sales to Asia and Africa, data from energy think-tank Ember showed.
Asia accounted for 37% of all Chinese exports in the first quarter of 2025, up from 25.4% in 2024, while Europe's share declined to 34% from 41% in 2024, Ember data showed. Total Chinese exports have remained steady despite lower demand due to high stockpiles in Europe - its biggest market. |
Agustin Nunez prepares casabe dish in his farm in Quivican, Cuba. REUTERS/Norlys Perez |
Today’s spotlight shines a light on how turning to cultural practices can help during times of crisis. Cuba's economic crisis has vastly reduced the import and production of such basics as wheat flour, sugar and salt.
This has prompted some to give the small circular flatbread made from ground yucca served alone - or topped with any combination of onion, tomato, pork and garlic - another look. Its only ingredient is locally grown yucca root, also known as cassava. The dish, known locally as casabe, has been around for over a thousand years, historians said.
“In a time of food crisis like the one we're currently experiencing, we believe cassava bread can help," said Yudisley Cruz, co-founder of Yucasabi, a small business and restaurant that promotes yucca-based products. |
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