Latest news with #SustainableSwitch
Reuters
4 days ago
- Climate
- Reuters
Sustainable Switch: Deadly floods hit Nigeria, India and Bangladesh
This is an excerpt of the Sustainable Switch newsletter, where we make sense of companies and governments grappling with climate change, diversity, and human rights on Tuesdays, Thursdays and Fridays. To receive the full newsletter in your inbox for free sign up here. Hello, Fatal floods have wreaked havoc across Nigeria, India and Bangladesh this week and Romania is dealing with the aftermath of one of its worst floods in 30 years. Meanwhile, in the United States – where hurricane season is underway – the head of the Federal Emergency Management Agency left his staff baffled by saying he was unaware that the country has a hurricane season. A spokesperson for the Department of Homeland Security later said the comment was a joke. Countries around the world are experiencing extreme weather events, including in Nigeria, where torrential rains have triggered deadly floods and widespread devastation. Flooding in Nigeria's Niger State this week has killed 151 people and forced several thousand from their homes, an emergency official told Reuters. Ibrahim Audu Hussaini, director of information at the Niger State Emergency Management Agency, said over 500 households had been impacted and more than 3,000 people displaced. Heavy rains in India and Bangladesh In India, at least 34 people have died in the nation's northeastern region after heavy floods caused landslides over the last four days, authorities and media said, and the weather department predicted more heavy rain. More than a thousand tourists trapped in the Himalayan state of Sikkim were being evacuated on Monday, a government statement said, and army rescue teams were pressed into service in Meghalaya state to rescue more than 500 people stranded in flooded areas. In neighbouring Bangladesh, at least four members of a family were killed in a landslide in the northeastern district of Sylhet, while hundreds of shelters have been opened across the hilly districts of Rangamati, Bandarban, and Khagrachhari. Authorities have warned of further landslides and flash floods, urging residents in vulnerable areas to remain alert. Romania's worst floods in 30 years Elsewhere, Romanian officials have been rerouting a stream in central Romania to prevent further flooding of the Praid salt mine, one of Europe's largest salt reserves and a popular tourist attraction, after parts of its floor caved in. Authorities evacuated 45 households near mine areas at risk of collapse after the worst floods in 30 years in the central Romanian county of Harghita. The floods are threatening to destroy the livelihoods of people in the town of Praid who have relied on tourism centred around the salt mine for decades, local authority officials said. FEMA's head unaware of hurricane season And finally, staff of the U.S. disaster agency FEMA were left baffled on Monday after its head David Richardson said he had not been aware the country has a hurricane season, according to four sources familiar with the situation. The remark was made during a briefing by Richardson, who has led FEMA since early May. It was not clear to staff whether he meant it literally, as a joke, or in some other context. A spokesperson for the Department of Homeland Security, FEMA's parent agency, said the comment was a joke and that FEMA is prepared for hurricane season. The U.S. hurricane season officially began on Sunday and lasts through November. The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration forecast last week that this year's season is expected to bring as many as 10 hurricanes. Representative Bennie Thompson, the senior Democrat on the House Homeland Security Committee with oversight of FEMA, issued a statement to Reuters that read: "Suffice to say, disaster response is no joke. If you don't know what or when hurricane season is, you're not qualified to run FEMA. Get someone knowledgeable in there.' ESG Lens Britain needs to cut industrial energy bills that are the highest among major advanced economies if its aspirations for a healthy manufacturing sector are to succeed, industry body Make UK, formerly the Engineering Employers' Federation, said. Britain had the highest industrial energy prices out of any International Energy Agency member country in 2023, reflecting its dependence on gas and its role in setting electricity prices. Today's Sustainable Switch was edited by Alexandra Hudson Think your friend or colleague should know about us? Forward this newsletter to them. They can also subscribe here.
Reuters
21-05-2025
- Politics
- Reuters
Sustainable Switch: Trump targets Temporary Protected Status
May 20 - This is an excerpt of the Sustainable Switch newsletter, where we make sense of companies and governments grappling with climate change, diversity, and human rights on Tuesdays, Thursdays and Fridays. To receive the full newsletter in your inbox for free sign up here. Hello! Today's newsletter continues to follow the myriad human-rights lawsuits in the United States Supreme Court as President Donald Trump targets migration protections, workers' rights, and diversity, equity and inclusion policies at universities. Let's examine the Supreme Court case in which the justices granted Trump's administration permission to end temporary protected status that his predecessor, Joe Biden, granted to hundreds of thousands of Venezuelans in the United States. Temporary Protected Status, or TPS, is a program that provides deportation relief and work permits to people already in the U.S. if their home countries experience a natural disaster, armed conflict, or other extraordinary events. Congress created the program in 1990 after a spike in migrants fleeing civil war in El Salvador. The order from the court, which has a 6-3 conservative majority, was unsigned, as is typical when it acts on an emergency request. Liberal Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson was the sole justice to dissent publicly. Restricting birthright citizenship The U.S. Supreme Court also dealt with Trump's attempt to broadly enforce his executive order to restrict birthright citizenship, a move that would affect thousands of babies born each year as the Republican president seeks a major shift in how the U.S. Constitution has long been understood. The court's conservative justices seemed willing to limit the ability of lower courts to issue nationwide, or "universal," injunctions, as federal judges in Maryland, Washington, and Massachusetts did to block Trump's directive. None of the justices, however, signaled an endorsement of Trump's order, and some of the liberals said it violated the Constitution and contradicted the court's own precedents. Liberal Justice Sonia Sotomayor said she believed Trump's order violated multiple Supreme Court precedents concerning citizenship. Sotomayor said the court should weigh the order's legality "if we are worried about those thousands of children who are going to be born without citizenship papers that could render them stateless" and leave them ineligible for government benefits. Stopping federal workers from unionizing Elsewhere, a federal appeals court lifted an order that blocked the U.S. administration from stripping hundreds of thousands of federal employees of the ability to unionize and collectively bargain over working conditions. The order exempted more than a dozen federal agencies from obligations to bargain with unions. They include the departments of Justice, State, Defense, Treasury, Veterans Affairs, and Health and Human Services. The union, which represents about 160,000 federal employees, argued the order violates federal workers' labor rights and the Constitution. But the appeals court's majority said the union had failed to show it would suffer the type of irreparable harm that would justify the preliminary injunction issued by U.S. District Judge Paul Friedman on April 25. The union and White House did not immediately respond to requests for comment on the ruling. The Trump administration has filed separate lawsuits seeking to invalidate existing union contracts covering thousands of workers. Cracking down on DEI in universities Meanwhile, the United States announced the formation of a new unit that will crack down on federally funded universities that have diversity, equity and inclusion policies using a civil anti-fraud law, the Justice Department said in a memo. The creation of the "Civil Rights Fraud Initiative" marks the latest escalation by the administration of Trump against colleges and universities that it has claimed are pushing antisemitic, anti-American, Marxist, and "radical left" ideologies. Deputy Attorney Todd Blanche wrote in the memo that the new fraud initiative will be co-led by the Civil Division's Fraud Section and the Civil Rights Division. He said that each division would assign a team of attorneys to "aggressively pursue" this work. He also said that each of the country's 93 U.S. Attorneys' offices will be required to tap a prosecutor to contribute to the effort. ESG Lens U.S. tariffs: In keeping with the theme for the Trump administration's executive orders from this year after the U.S. President imposed a blanket tariff of 10% on all global imports. Today's ESG Lens focuses on how global retailers are looking at spreading the cost of U.S. tariffs by raising prices across markets to avoid big hikes in the United States that could hurt sales. Click here for the full Reuters story. Think your friend or colleague should know about us? Forward this newsletter to them. They can also subscribe here.
Reuters
14-05-2025
- Politics
- Reuters
Sustainable Switch: More than 100 dead after eastern Congo floods
This is an excerpt of the Sustainable Switch newsletter, where we make sense of companies and governments grappling with climate change, diversity, and human rights on Tuesdays, Thursdays and Fridays. To receive the full newsletter in your inbox for free sign up here. Hello, Devastating floods have hit the Democratic Republic of Congo where more than 100 people have died after heavy rains in a village near the shores of Lake Tanganyika, a local official said. The fatal floods in eastern DRC took place as seven people in Somalia died after a flood swept through its capital, according to a government official. The DRC flooding, which affected the village of Kasaba, comes at a vulnerable moment for the Central African nation. Rwanda-backed M23 rebels have intensified an offensive in the eastern region since the start of the year, with thousands killed in fighting in the first two months of the year. The affected area is still under the administration of Kinshasa and is not among the zones taken by M23. Samy Kalodji, administrator of Fizi territory in South Kivu province where the village is located, said that reports from the area "indicated more than 100 deaths." Didier Luganywa, spokesperson for the South Kivu government, said in a statement the flooding incident occurred between Thursday night and Friday when torrential rains and strong winds caused the Kasaba river to overflow its banks. Fatal floods in Somalia In Somalia at least seven people died and the rain flooded the houses of 200 families and caused nine houses to collapse, according to Saleh Hassan, a spokesperson for the mayor of Mogadishu. Among the dead was a young boy whose body was recovered from the debris on one of the damaged streets on Saturday. "I was hoping the water would spit him out but all was in vain. This morning, my friends joined me with hammers and spades and we managed to remove his body," local resident Nuradin Mohammed told Reuters. Conflict and extreme weather The extreme weather in DRC and Somalia came days after the World Food Programme (WFP) released a report that focused on West and Central Africa's food crisis. The report found that some 52 million people in those regions will struggle to meet their basic food and nutrition needs in the upcoming lean season, driven by conflict, extreme weather and economic deterioration, the WFP said in its report. The report flagged food inflation, made worse by rising fuel costs in countries including Ghana, Guinea and Ivory Coast, and recurrent extreme weather in the central Sahel, around the Lake Chad Basin and in the Central African Republic. Conflicts have displaced 10 million people in the region, the WFP said, including eight million internally displaced inside Nigeria and Cameroon. Although the report did not include DRC, as Rwandan-backed M23 rebels have staged a major advance, some 28 million people face acute hunger in the region, according to a report released in late March by the WFP and the U.N.'s Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO). ESG Lens Health: Measles – one of the world's most contagious diseases — is approaching a return to endemic status in the United States, meaning continuously present, decades after it was declared eradicated, researchers warn. The disease has spread in 30 states with over 1,000 confirmed cases as of May 8, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Click here for the full Reuters graphics explainer on the rapid spread of measles in Texas. Think your friend or colleague should know about us? Forward this newsletter to them. They can also subscribe here.
Reuters
03-05-2025
- Business
- Reuters
Berkshire shareholders reject diversity, AI proposals
OMAHA, Nebraska, May 3 (Reuters) - Berkshire Hathaway (BRKa.N), opens new tab shareholders on Saturday 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. Make sense of the latest ESG trends affecting companies and governments with the Reuters Sustainable Switch newsletter. Sign up here. Also voted down were proposals requiring Berkshire's board of directors to create a committee to oversee diversity and inclusion, having independent directors oversee AI-related risks, and requiring a report on "voluntary" environmental activities that exceed federal and state requirements. The votes were announced after Buffett unexpectedly announced he planned to step down as Berkshire chief executive at the end of the year. He will be replaced by Vice Chairman Greg Abel, who presided over the reading of the shareholder proposals. Buffett, who controls about 30% of Berkshire's voting power, and the other Berkshire directors opposed all seven proposals, finding them unnecessary and in some instances inconsistent with the company's decentralized culture. The board also said Berkshire's operating companies set their own policies concerning race and other employment factors, and that Berkshire's overall approach was "simple - follow the law and do the right thing." Businesses across corporate America have curbed public support or initiatives for diversity, equity and inclusion in the workplace, as conservatives including U.S. President Donald Trump push to curb DEI in the private sector and society, as well as in the federal government. Berkshire has discussed generally in its annual reports the hiring practices of its operating businesses. In its latest report in February, it removed a reference to "diversity and inclusion in the workforce" as a hiring goal. At Saturday's meeting, Berkshire shareholders also reelected all directors who were eligible, including Buffett and Abel.
Reuters
02-05-2025
- Business
- Reuters
DOGE expands presence at Wall St regulator, sources say
Elon Musk looks on during the day of a meeting with House Republicans to discuss the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) on Capitol Hill in Washington, D.C., U.S., March 5, 2025. REUTERS/Kent Nishimura/File Photo/File Photo Purchase Licensing Rights, opens new tab May 2 (Reuters) - Presidential adviser Elon Musk's Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) is expanding its presence at the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission by adding a third staff member, according to people familiar with the matter. Since March DOGE has been scrutinizing agency contracting and organizational charts for more possible cuts and restructuring. The SEC has shed at least 16% of its staff, largely through the Trump administration's voluntary buyouts. Make sense of the latest ESG trends affecting companies and governments with the Reuters Sustainable Switch newsletter. Sign up here. The SEC and the White House did not answer specific questions from Reuters. The SEC repeated prior statements that it was co-operating with DOGE to find cost savings while the White House said newly-installed Chairman Paul Atkins was committed to maintaining "fair, orderly, and efficient markets while protecting everyday investors." Led by Elie Mishory, a former top lawyer at the prediction markets company Kalshi, DOGE's staff at the SEC has since been joined by Jonathan Mendelson, according to two of the sources. Mishory reports to Chair Atkins' office, according to internal records seen by Reuters. Mishory and Mendelson did not immediately respond to requests for comment. During confirmation testimony, Atkins told the Senate he would work with DOGE to create efficiencies. Since President Donald Trump returned to power, the White House has slashed the federal workforce in a bid to reduce what it says is wasteful spending. The staff exodus so far has depleted divisions that oversee oversight functions at the regulator, prompting worry from some observers that the losses will hinder the SEC's performance in detecting fraud and promoting financial stability. Reporting by Douglas Gillison in Washington and Chris Prentice in New York; Editing by Freya Whitworth Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles., opens new tab Chris Prentice Thomson Reuters Chris Prentice reports on financial crimes, with a focus on securities enforcement matters. She previously covered commodities markets and trade policy. She has received awards for her work from the Society for Advancing Business Editing and Writing and the Newswomen's Club of New York.
