More Americans fall into poverty after federal stimulus programs end

By Tami Luhby, CNN 3 hrs ago

Congress' swift and expansive response to the coronavirus pandemic last spring spared millions of Americans from falling into poverty after losing their jobs. But now that the relief has ended, the poverty rate has risen in recent months, two new studies show.

© Ben Hasty/MediaNews Group/Reading Eagle/Getty Images Boxes of supplies to be distributed, with the Feed The Children logo on them, bottled water, school supplies, and bags with cereal. At the Hope Rescue Mission in Reading, PA Thursday morning August 27, 2020 where a food distribution was held from Feed the Children, in cooperation with Price Rite Marketplace, and Hope Rescue Mission.

The poverty rate fell from 11% in February to 9.3% in June, according to research conducted by professors at the University of Notre Dame, the University of Chicago and Zhejiang University in China. The entire decline could be attributed to the one-time federal stimulus checks of up to $1,200 for eligible individuals and $2,400 for eligible married couples, plus $500 for each qualifying child, that were distributed in the spring.

Lawmakers also enacted a historic expansion of the unemployment program, temporarily broadening it to more of the jobless, adding a $600 weekly boost and extending the duration of benefits. The $600 enhancement ceased at the end of July.

While Congress and the White House continue to discuss a new relief package, Democrats and Republicans remain divided.

Without the additional federal help, more people -- particularly Black Americans, children and those with a high school education or less -- fell into poverty over the summer. The rate rose to 11.1% in September, according to the researchers, who have created a near real time dashboard.

"Our results show that for low-income individuals and families, the government response to the pandemic more than offset the sharp decline in earnings early on in the pandemic," the authors wrote. "However, these gains appear to have faded as some of the benefits expire."

These figures differ from the nation's official poverty rate, which is determined by the US Census Bureau. The 2020 data will not be released until next year, likely in September.

Another study, done by researchers at Columbia University's Center on Poverty and Social Policy, found that the stimulus checks and enhanced jobless benefits lifted more than 18 million people out of monthly poverty in April.

The expiration of the $600 assistance sent the monthly poverty rate to 16.7% in September, higher than the spring and pre-pandemic levels. Only 4.3 million people were kept out of poverty last month, mainly through the broadening of the unemployment program to freelancers, the self-employed, independent contractors and certain people affected by the coronavirus.

Without the March relief package, the poverty rates would have been higher over the last seven months.

The increases have been particularly severe for Black and Hispanic Americans, as well as for children, the Columbia study found. The monthly poverty rate for White Americans was 12% in September, but it was 25.2% and 25.8% for Black and Hispanic Americans, respectively.

GRIFTER NATION

A billionaire who vowed to pay off the debt of an entire college class will pay $140 million to settle a 

4-year tax probe, a report says

© Stephen Lovekin/Getty Images

The billionaire Robert Smith will pay $140 million to settle a four-year tax investigation, Bloomberg reported Wednesday.

The CEO of the private-equity firm Vista Equity Partners will admit misconduct but will not be prosecuted, sources told Bloomberg.

The settlement amount, which is expected to be made public as early as Thursday, is said to include back taxes, penalties and interest.

Bloomberg reported in August that Smith had been the subject of a four-year investigation by the Justice Department and the IRS into outstanding taxes on $200 million in assets.

Smith hit headlines last year when he vowed to pay off the student loans of the entire graduating class of 2019 at Morehouse College.

Robert Smith, the billionaire who pledged a year ago to pay off the student debt for an entire class of college graduates, will pay $140 million to settle a four-year tax investigation involving assets held in offshore tax havens, Bloomberg reported Wednesday.

Citing sources familiar with the matter, Bloomberg said Smith told some executives of the pending agreement on Wednesday. Bloomberg said Smith, who heads up the private-equity firm Vista Equity Partners, was cooperating with investigators and would admit misconduct but would not be prosecuted.

Bloomberg reported in August that Justice Department and IRS officials had spent four years investigating whether Smith owed taxes on $200 million in assets that were moved through offshore entities.

The settlement, which one source told Bloomberg could be made public as early as Thursday, is said to include back taxes, penalties, and interest. It does not involve Vista, Bloomberg said.

Representatives for Smith, Vista Equity Partners, and the US attorney in San Francisco declined to comment to Bloomberg on the nature of the agreement.

Smith's settlement includes a non-prosecution agreement that states he did not pay roughly $30 million in taxes, with penalties and interest accounting for the remainder of the payment, one source told Bloomberg.

The person added Smith admitted in a telephone call to failing to file accurate reports of foreign bank and financial accounts over three years.

Smith hit headlines last year when he pledged to pay off the student debt of the entire 2019 graduating class at Morehouse College in Georgia.
Read the original article on Business Insider

Mexico says two women may have had non-consensual surgery in U.S. detention center

MONTERREY, Mexico (Reuters) - Mexico's Foreign Ministry said it has identified two Mexican migrant women who may have had surgery performed on them without their consent while detained at a U.S. immigration center in the state of Georgia.

© Reuters/BRIAN SNYDER Demonstrators march during the Never Again Para Nadir protest against ICE Detention camps in Boston

While being held at the Irwin center in Georgia, one Mexican woman was reportedly subject to gynecological surgery without her approval and without receiving post-operative care, the ministry said in a weekend statement.

The ministry said its findings were based on actions taken by consular staff and interviews Mexican officials conducted at the center.

Officials were also verifying the case of a second woman who may have been subject to surgical intervention "without her full consent," without receiving an explanation in Spanish of the procedure, or her medical diagnosis, it added.

It did not name the women. The ministry last month said it had identified a woman possibly subjected to surgery in the center, but did not specify whether she had given her consent.

The U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agency did not respond to a request for comment.

The ministry also said it is in touch with a lawyer about a possible class action lawsuit by Mexican women who have been detained at the facility.

In September, a complaint by a whistleblower nurse alleged medical abuse within the Georgia detention center, including unauthorized hysterectomies, a surgery to remove the uterus.

Reuters could not independently confirm those claims. In its statement, the Mexican foreign ministry said the first woman it referred to was not subject to a hysterectomy. It gave no further details on the second.

ICE Health Service Corps said in September that since 2018 only two people at the center were referred for hysterectomies, based on approved recommendations by specialists.

The contractor that runs the facility has said it strongly refutes the allegations and any implications of misconduct.

(Reporting by Laura Gottesdiener; Editing by Aurora Ellis)

Senator shares family's abortion story, 1st sitting senator to do so

A Michigan senator facing a tense reelection race has become the first sitting senator, male or female, to share a personal abortion story with the public.

© Bill Clark/CQ-Roll Call, Inc via Getty Images, FILE Sen. Gary Peters leaves the Senate Democrats policy lunch in the U.S. Capitol in Washington, Sept. 10, 2019.

"The mental anguish someone goes through is intense," Sen. Gary Peters told Laura Bassett for Elle magazine, "trying to have a miscarriage for a child that was wanted."

As Peters, 61, told it, his first wife, Heidi, was about four months pregnant -- in the second trimester -- when her water broke, creating what their doctor said were unsurvivable conditions for the fetus. The couple was told to go home to miscarry naturally.

When a miscarriage didn't happen naturally by the next day, the couple returned to the hospital, where the doctor recommended an abortion but said it couldn't be provided there as the hospital had a ban. The couple went home again.

On the third day with no natural miscarriage, they again returned to the hospital where, Peters said, the doctor told them Heidi could lose her uterus or die of sepsis. The hospital denied the doctor's appeal for an abortion procedure, but the Peters were able to get the procedure at another hospital because they were friends with its chief administrator, Bassett reported.

"If it weren’t for urgent and critical medical care, I could have lost my life," his former wife said in a statement to Elle.

"I’ve always considered myself pro-choice and believe women should be able to make these decisions themselves, but when you live it in real life, you realize the significant impact it can have on a family," Peters, who was elected to the Senate in 2014, told Elle.

He said he chose to come forward with his story now as the Senate considers President Donald Trump's Supreme Court nomination of Judge Amy Coney Barrett, who has signed her name to anti-abortion ads.

Barrett's confirmation would represent a solid conservative-leaning block for the court, which would likely impact abortion law in years to come. Depending on the outcome of a 5th Circuit decision, a case that would be a de facto ban on second-trimester abortions, by banning the dilation and evacuation method of abortion, could soon make it to the Supreme Court.

MORE: Is Ginsburg's death the end of Roe v. Wade? This time, some experts say, it could be.

Republicans, including the president and vice president, have made a point of targeting Democrats' implicit support for the right to abortion in the second and third trimesters. According to the latest data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, abortions after 14 weeks' gestation make up about 8.9% of all abortions in the United States, with just 1.2% occurring after 20 weeks.

Pressed about the right to abortion in the third trimester in a Fox News town hall last year, in a clip that recently went viral on social media, then-Democratic presidential candidate Pete Buttigieg said, "We're talking about women who have perhaps chosen the name, women who have purchased the crib, families that then get the most devastating medical news of their lifetime, something about the health or the life of the mother that forces them to make an impossible, unthinkable choice. That decision is not going to be made any better, medically or morally, because the government is dictating how that decision should be made."

In his bid for reelection, Peters is facing Republican candidate John James in a contentious -- and costly -- race. According to FiveThirtyEight, Peters has had a slight edge in recent polls.


See what people are saying

M. Gretchen Roedde

I am a pro-life Catholic, global public health doctor, and practicing physician. Unsafe abortion contributes heavily to the deaths of pregnant women. According to the Lancet/Guttmacher Commission Sept. 2020 Vol.8: "Conclusion: The Guttmacher-Lancet Commission recommended a comprehensive package of essential sexual and reproductive health and rights services, including contraception and safe abortion care, for inclusion in national health systems. Our findings emphasise that unintended pregnancy and abortion are experiences shared by many people globally, regardless of region, income group, and legal status. Our findings highlight the need for continued commitment and investment to ensure access to the full spectrum of quality comprehensive sexual and reproductive health care. Fulfilling these commitments will not only result in better outcomes for all, but are also necessary to achieve the targets for the Global Strategy for Women’s, Children’s and Adolescent’s Health (2016–30)8 as well as the Sustainable Development Goals, and universal health coverage." Dr. Gretchen Roedde Canada

IN$IDER TRADING

Elizabeth Warren demands investigation into elite investors accessing Trump briefings

By Matt Egan, CNN Business 

Senator Elizabeth Warren is calling on US financial regulators to investigate whether insider trading laws were violated when elite investors reportedly got wind of private concerns voiced by Trump officials about the pandemic in late February.

© Bill Clark/CQ-Roll Call/Getty Images UNITED STATES - JULY 22: From left, Sen. Chris Van Hollen, D-Md., Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., and Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., hold a news conference in the Capitol to call for an extension of eviction protections in the next coronavirus bill on Wednesday, July 22, 2020. (Photo By Bill Clark/CQ-Roll Call, Inc via Getty Images)

"Numerous investors may have used this early and insider information about the looming, tragic economic and public health consequences of the pandemic to extract profits for themselves," Warren wrote in the letter obtained first by CNN Business.

Warren, a Democrat from Massachusetts, urged the SEC and Commodity Futures Trading Commission to swiftly open an investigation into the episode.

The request follows a report by The New York Times alleging that senior members of President Donald Trump's economic team privately detailed concerns in late February about the looming pandemic. These warnings, reportedly relayed during private addresses to board members of the conservative Hoover Institution, contrasted sharply with the administration's public comments.

At the time, Trump was telling the public that the health crisis was "very much under control." The president even said in a tweet that the stock market was "starting to look very good to me!"

Word of those private concerns held by top US officials reportedly spread to elite investors through a hedge fund consultant, allowing these traders to make bets that stocks would drop.

According to the Times, the president's aides "appeared to be giving wealthy party donors an early warning of a potentially impactful contagion at a time when Mr. Trump was publicly insisting that the threat was nonexistent."

"Short everything" was the reaction of one major investor briefed on the memo from the hedge fund consultant, the Times said.

That proved to be a lucrative trade.

By March 11, the S&P 500 had plunged into the fastest bear market in US history. Retirement accounts and investment portfolios were crushed. Trillions of dollars of market value vanished.

In the letter, Warren said the incident "appears to be a textbook case of insider trading."

Some legal experts, however, told CNN Business that may not be the case.

"The optics are bad, but not everything that looks bad is criminal," Charles Whitehead, a professor at Cornell Law School, said in an email. "It's unclear whether trading based on the White House's private release of factual information, that was otherwise publicly obtainable, would constitute insider trading, even if the White House was publicly contesting that information."

Whitehead said that it would be an entirely different matter if investors had learned what the Trump administration might or might not do in the face of the pandemic.

That kind of information "can be extremely valuable for investors, and its private release does come nearer and may very well step over the line," he said.

Elizabeth Nowicki, a former SEC attorney, agrees that the conduct described in the article likely does not run afoul of insider trading laws.

"The facts regarding the private disclosure and later trading are disturbing, unfair, and unseemly," she said. "But they are unlikely to be found by a court or the SEC to constitute unlawful insider trading."

'Appalling abdication of duty'

Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin dismissed the Times report on Thursday as "another exaggeration" by the paper.

"I can't imagine this occurred," Mnuchin told CNBC. "By the way, there were plenty of investors who had their own views of what was going on at the time and were very concerned rightfully."

And the Times reported that legal experts say it is not apparent that any communications about these briefings violated securities laws.

But at least one billionaire investor expressed concern about the incident.

"But the problem is — and what crystalized that story — the feeling that the public was getting one set of briefings from White House spokesmen, 'Not to worry — it's mostly contained, or all contained' and then donors and insiders were getting a different set of more worrisome briefings inside the White House," hedge fund manager Jim Chanos told Hedgeye Risk Management on Thursday.

Warren urged the SEC and CFTC to review the material nonpublic information provided to investors and any trading that occurred as a result.

Specifically, Warren asked the regulators to determine which Trump administration officials provided the information, how that information differed from the public comments by the administration, who received the information and whether those individuals made trades of securities, futures, swaps or commodities.

"If this report is accurate, it represents an appalling abdication of duty by President Trump and top officials in his administration," Warren wrote.

CRIMINAL CAPITALI$M 

Wall Street heavyweights profited as the market melted down in February after getting private warnings from the Trump administration, a new report says  

Wall Street investors knew of private concern about the coronavirus within the Trump administration and used the knowledge to position for the following market plunge, The New York Times reported on Wednesday.

A memo from the hedge-fund consultant William Callanan described White House officials' wariness, expressed in meetings in late February, about a US outbreak. Meanwhile, the officials publicly allayed concerns about the coronavirus.

Callanan sent the note to David Tepper, the founder of Appaloosa Management, on February 26. The memo spread throughout the firm and to investors at other offices.

Some recipients adjusted their portfolios accordingly, viewing the US officials' private statements as a warning of devastation to come, The Times reported. 

 

The S&P 500 plummeted 4.4% on February 27, and by March 23 it sat roughly 25% lower than the day Tepper received the memo.

A February memo shared among Wall Street's elite detailed the Trump administration's private concerns about the coronavirus pandemic.

Some heeded the warning and cashed out on bearish positions when markets tanked later that month, The New York Times reported on Wednesday.

On February 24, senior members of President Donald Trump's economic team privately spoke with board members of the Hoover Institution, a research organization at Stanford University, about the risks of a domestic outbreak. One advisor said the White House couldn't yet estimate the effects on the US economy, suggesting to some that the coronavirus could cause significant harm, the report said.

But administration officials publicly allayed fears that the virus would slam the US. The next day, Larry Kudlow, the director of the National Economic Council, said the nation was "pretty close to airtight," despite privately telling the Hoover board that "we just don't know" how contained the virus was, The Times said.

William Callanan, a hedge-fund consultant and member of the Hoover board, wrote in a memo at the time that almost every administration official addressed the virus "as a point of concern, totally unprovoked," according to The Times.

The memo quickly spread throughout the hedge-fund industry just as markets began to grapple with the prospect of a US outbreak.

On February 25, Callanan emailed David Tepper, the Appaloosa Management founder, about the Hoover meetings, highlighting the wariness expressed by the administration officials.

In an interview with CNBC on February 1, Tepper had told investors to be "cautious" until more was known about the virus. Callanan's memo reinforced his bearish stance.

The email spread through Appaloosa and, eventually, to investors outside the firm. Over the next day, at least seven investors across four money-management offices received elements of Callanan's memo, The Times reported.

Many of the investors, equipped with knowledge of the Hoover meetings, adjusted their portfolios accordingly. One told The Times that their reaction was to "short everything," while another said they added to their existing short bets. Some said they even bought up essential goods like toilet paper, reading the memo as a preview of nationwide devastation to come.

The bearish adjustments likely paid off big. The S&P 500 plunged about 4.4% on February 27, the day after the Hoover memo spread from Appaloosa to other investing firms. By the time the benchmark stock index bottomed on March 23, it sat roughly 25% lower from its level on February 27.

Tepper initially denied receiving the memo before telling The Times that while he likely got it, he didn't pay it much attention.

"We were in the information flow on COVID at that point," Tepper said. "Because we were so public about this warning, people were calling us at this time."

He added that Appaloosa held a bearish position on February 23, days before he received Callanan's email.

Thousands of indigenous people march to end Colombian violence
AFP 3 days ago

Thousands of indigenous people demonstrated in southwestern Colombia on Monday demanding an end to violence, on the day commemorating Christopher Columbus's arrival in the Americas.

© Luis ROBAYO Colombian indigenous people are heading to Cali in the southwest in the hope of meeting President Ivan Duque to demand concrete action on ending violence

Clashes also broke out between police and protesters in Chile as hundreds demonstrated in favor of the Mapuche indigenous people on the day known in many countries in the region as the 'Day of the Race.'

Dressed in green and red and carrying traditional sticks, the demonstrators converged on the city of Cali where they hope to meet President Ivan Duque.

"The main reason we're marching is the systematic massacres happening in our territories without the government taking any interest," said Franky Reinosa of the Regional Indigenous Council in the western state of Caldas.

The demonstrators are demanding they be consulted on major development projects and for the full implementation of the historic 2016 peace plan that ended a half century of armed resistance by the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) rebels.

Interior Minister Alicia Arango said on Twitter a government delegation was traveling to Cali to meet the protesters.

The demonstration coincides with the commemoration of the arrival of Christopher Columbus in the Americas in 1492.

While the occasion was originally intended to mark the beginning of Hispanic influence in the Americas, for many people in Latin America it is seen as an opportunity to celebrate native cultures and their resistence to European colonialism.


"For us (that) was the greatest ethnocide in the history of our territories," said Reinosa.

The southwest of Colombia that borders Ecuador and the Pacific has a large indigenous population and is one of the worst affected areas by a wave of violence that has resulted in at least 42 massacres this year, according to the United Nations.

Despite the 2016 peace accord, dozens of armed groups remain active in Colombia fighting over the lucrative drug-trafficking trade.

Colombia is the world's largest producer of cocaine.

Representing 4.4 percent of Colombia's 50 million population, indigenous people have been fighting for territorial rights for decades, using methods such as road blocks to gain attention.

In Chile's capital Santiago, hundreds of people, including other indigenous tribes, converged on a central square for a demonstration dubbed "Mapuche Resistence."

Clashes broke out with police as some people wearing hoods smashed bus stops and road signs and threw stones at security forces, who responded with tear gas and water cannon.

The Mapuche are the largest indigenous group in Chile and have a long-running dispute with the state.

They are demanding the return of ancestral lands in the country's south, much of which has been allocated to private logging companies.

The disturbances came less than two weeks before a landmark referendum on changing Chile's dictatorship era constitution.

dl/lda/bc/jh

'I want freedom': Thais mass to defy protest ban

By Patpicha Tanakasempipat

© Reuters/CHALINEE THIRASUPA FILE PHOTO: Pro-democracy protesters show the three-finger salute as they gather demanding the government to resign and to release detained leaders in Bangkok

BANGKOK (Reuters) - From shops, offices and schools they spilled onto a Bangkok street in their tens of thousands, voicing shock and anger and above all defiance.

Thailand's government had announced emergency measures to ban gatherings of five or more people to try to end three months of protests. The response was one of the biggest demonstrations so far, in the heart of the capital.  

© Reuters/JORGE SILVA FILE PHOTO: A pro-democracy protester stands in front of police officers during anti-government protests in Bangkok

"I'm not afraid. Emergency or not, I have no freedom," said 26-year-old illustrator Thanatpohn Dejkunchorn, who left work early to attend the protest with friends. "I want freedom to exist in this country. I want it to be free from this vicious cycle."  

© Reuters/JORGE SILVA Pro-democracy protesters gather demanding the government to resign and to release detained leaders in Bangkok

Protests have built since mid-July in the biggest challenge in years to the political establishment - seeking the removal of Prime Minister Prayuth Chan-ocha, a former junta leader, and to curb the powers of King Maha Vajiralongkorn.

"We have to create understanding with the protesters," government spokesman Anucha Burapachaisri told Reuters, complaining that protest leaders were not giving protesters "complete information."

© Reuters/CHALINEE THIRASUPA Police officers with riot shields take position during a gathering of pro-democracy protesters who demand the government to resign and to release detained leaders in Bangkok

Police said they would arrest all protesters, though they did not explain how they would charge tens of thousands of people.

The Royal Palace has declined all comment on the protesters or their demands.

Until Wednesday, the government had largely allowed demonstrations to happen, while making no sign of meeting protesters' demands.

But that changed after an incident in which protesters jeered Queen Suthida's motorcade as she and the king were paying a rare visit from Europe, where they spend most of their time.

The government cited that as well as the risks to national security and the economy from protests and the danger of spreading coronavirus as reasons for imposing emergency measures.

The government then launched a crackdown, sweeping away a camp set up outside Prayuth's office and arresting three protest leaders - among around 40 arrests in the past week.

"EXCESSIVE AND UNNECESSARY POWER"

"It's obvious that the state wants to exercise excessive and unnecessary power on people," said 22-year-old student Pattanun Arunpreechawat, who joined Thursday's protest after studies.

Protesters want to oust Prayuth, who first took power in a 2014 coup, saying he engineered election rules last year to keep his position - an accusation he denies. Breaking a longstanding taboo, protesters have also challenged the monarchy - saying it has helped entrench decades of military influence.

They gathered in the shadow of upmarket shopping malls and shiny tower blocks that are home to multinationals and other businesses in Southeast Asia's second biggest economy.

But the Ratchaprasong Intersection also has a historic resonance for protesters. In 2010, it was the scene of bloodshed as security forces cracked down on Red Shirts who battled pro-establishment Yellow Shirts during a decade of turmoil.

"I'm not afraid. I've been chased by guns," said beef noodle seller Thawat Kijkunasatien, 57, a veteran of the bloody crackdown a decade ago and another in 1992.

"Wherever the kids go, I go," he said at the protest while sipping a can of beer.

One characteristic of the latest Thai protests has been the extent to which they are led by students and other young people. Most protest leaders are in their 20s, but an even younger generation is following.

From giving the three-finger salute of protest when the national anthem plays at school to tying white ribbons in their hair and on school bags as symbols of protest, high school students have rallied to the campaign.

Many left school to join Thursday's protest - among them 18-year-old Tan, who came along after finishing school exams. He declined to give his full name for fear of reprisals.

"I make sure I’m prepared for exams before I go to protests. I have to give importance to both things," he said. "We can’t let it go on like this, or it will never end."

(Additional reporting by Matthew Tostevin and Panarat Thepgumpanat; Editing by Toby Chopra)

GREEN CAPITALI$M

$5 trillion investor group sets tougher portfolio carbon targets

 

© Reuters/Nguyen Huy Kham FILE PHOTO: Smoke rises from the chimney of a paper factory outside Hanoi

LONDON (Reuters) - Thirty of the world's largest investors managing a combined $5 trillion said on Tuesday they plan to set targets to lower their portfolio carbon emissions by as much as 29% over the next five years.

All members of the Net-Zero Asset Owner Alliance, a group which includes the biggest U.S. pension scheme CalPERs and German insurer Allianz, are aiming to align their portfolios with the 2015 Paris Agreement on climate change.

The move is the most ambitious yet by the influential group, whose members own sizeable stakes in many of the world's top companies, and comes as pressure builds for asset owners to use their financial muscle to push for quicker change.

While an increasing number of investors, companies and governments are committing to net zero carbon emissions by 2050, some have been criticised for not setting the clear nearer-term targets needed to ensure the goal is met.

With policymakers gearing up for the next round of global climate talks in Scotland next year, the group's move is likely to act as a challenge for other leading investors to step up their own efforts.

The group said its members would implement cuts in greenhouse gas emissions from their portfolios of between 16% and 29%, with each confirming their own particular target in the first quarter of 2021.

The plan, called the 2025 Target Setting Protocol, should help increase investment in those companies contributing to the transition to a low-carbon economy and influence both markets and government policies, the group said in a statement.

Specifically, the group said it would send a message to the thousands of companies owned by the investors that "deep emissions cuts are required", and that the group would work with boards willing to adjust their business models.

The Protocol has been made available for comment by the public, academics, government and business until Nov. 13.

"Reaching net-zero is not simply reducing emissions and carrying on with the business models of today," said Günther Thallinger, Alliance Chair and Member of the Board of Management, Allianz SE.

"There are profound changes and opportunities that will come from the net-zero economy, we see new business opportunities and strong wins for those who are ready to lead," he added.

(Reporting by Simon Jessop; Editing by Kirsten Donovan)

CANADA

Striking N.L. Dominion workers spend Thanksgiving on the picket line

ST. JOHN'S, N.L. — Parking lots at Dominion grocery stores in Newfoundland and Labrador were unusually deserted heading into Thanksgiving, except for a few striking employees holding their mittened hands over burn barrels.

© Provided by The Canadian Press

Eleven Dominion stores across the province have been closed since late August, when more than 1,400 workers went on strike to demand better wages and more full-time positions.

The employees represented by Unifor have rejected a contract offer from Loblaw Companies Ltd., Dominion’s parent company, that included a pay raise of $1 an hour over the next three years.

In interviews with The Canadian Press over the holiday weekend, Dominion workers said they’re fighting not only for themselves, but for retail workers across the country.

The vote to strike came after Loblaws, Sobeys and other major grocery store chains eliminated a $2-an-hour pay increase offered during the height of the pandemic.

Danni Singleton, who's worked at Dominion in St. John’s for eight years, said the extra $2 an hour made a real difference.

“It was not having to worry about, ‘Oh jeez, can I pay my rent and my phone bill this month?” Singleton said.

Singleton said it’s been “tiring and stressful” being on the picket line for so long, and a lot of her co-workers with families are struggling to get by.

Paula Hennebury, who’s worked at Dominion for 25 years, said she also misses the customers.

“It’s a little sad that we’re not seeing our regular people. You get to know them as family,” said

“But we do get to see them here, they stop by and say hello. It’s a sad time of the year to be out, but we’re strong, we’re going to keep going as long as we have to.”

Hennebury said it's not always easy to hold the line, especially as the weather turns cold.

“We’re pushing through it. We could be inside doing what we love to do, but we gotta fight for the future of everybody else,” she said.

Singleton agrees with her colleague that it’s tough to be out in the empty parking lot on Thanksgiving. But as she talks, passing cars beep their horns in support. People have brought the workers pizza and fried chicken, she said, and a law firm donated $1,000, which they used to rent a warming shelter.

A spokeswoman for Loblaw defended the company's proposed contract, noting it was supported by union leadership.

"We put a deal in front of our colleagues that we believed to be fair and that addressed many of the topics they have raised including full-time roles, job security and wage increases," Catherine Thomas said in a statement.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Oct. 12, 2020.