Trump Questions Housing Bill as He Prioritizes SAVE America Act 
Chip Stocks Rally as Samsung and SK Hynix’s $1.3 Trillion Investment Plan Boosts AI Optimism 
Kawasaki Heavy Shares Slide on Report of ¥200 Billion Capital Raise Plan 
SoftBank Shares Slide as OpenAI IPO Delay Concerns Weigh on AI Investment Outlook 
NATO Albania Summit Faces Uncertainty as Trump, Defense Spending Concerns Loom 
Asian Currencies Slip as Dollar Holds Firm, Yen Near Four-Decade Low Ahead of Fed, Jobs Data 
Open-Source AI Models Gain Ground as Enterprises Seek Lower-Cost Alternatives, Citi Says 
US Egg Producers Settle Price Manipulation Probe, Agree to Pay $3.3 Million and Donate 53 Million Eggs 
China Manufacturing PMI Edges Higher in June as Exports and AI Investment Boost Growth 
Trump Urges Gasoline Retailers to Cut Prices to $2.50 Per Gallon, Warns of Legal Action 
Baige Online Shares Soar 333% in Hong Kong IPO Debut as AI Insurance Demand Lifts Chinese Listings 
Microsoft Reportedly Plans New Job Cuts Across Sales, Consulting, and Xbox 
Asian Stocks End Strong Quarter as Dollar Surges, Yen Hits 40-Year Low Ahead of US Jobs Data 
Central Banks Eye Gold, Reduce Dollar Exposure as AI Adoption Accelerates: OMFIF Survey 
Anthropic Brings Claude AI Models to Microsoft Azure Foundry With NVIDIA Blackwell GPUs 
RBA Minutes Signal Australia Central Bank Remains Ready to Raise Interest Rates if Inflation Persists 
Amazon Inc. will be conducting an independent racial equity audit, and this will be led by former US attorney general Loretta Lynch. She will be probing the “disparate racial impacts” in the company’s workforce.
As per CNBC, Amazon is carrying out this probe as it faces strong pressure from its shareholders. The e-commerce giant officially joins other American companies such as Tyson Foods and Citigroup Inc. with its agreement to the said audit.
It was explained that this type of audit is an examination of companies to determine if their businesses caused and allowed discrimination in the workplace to continue. Former attorney general Lynch who is also a partner at Paul, Weiss, Rifkind, Wharton & Garrison LLP law firm, will be handling the investigation, as announced by Amazon late last week.
The racial equity audit at Amazon will be done on hourly workers. The decision for the probe comes after the company’s stakeholders urged the management to be more transparent on how its policies affect equity, diversity, and workplace inclusion in the office.
Moreover, in the recent securities filing, Amazon stated that its independent probe will assess “any disparate racial impacts on our nearly one million U.S. hourly employees resulting from our policies, programs, and practices.”
Jeff Bezos’ company also promised to share the results of the audit with the public. However, it did not mention any expected date for the completion of the probe. The shareholders have been urging Amazon to launch a racial inequities review for a while now and finally, the management has granted the request.
“Amazon has taken some measures to address racial justice and equity, including committing financial resources and publishing workforce diversity data,” part of the shareholder proposal for the audit reads. “However, Amazon faces controversies, some significant, that pose various risks and raise questions related to the company’s overall strategy and the company’s alignment with its public statements.”
The Financial Times reported that Amazon’s audit will not include its subsidiaries such as Whole Foods. Finally, the racial equity probe stemmed from the call for major companies to act on the issues regarding civil rights in the wake of George Floyd’s murder in 2020.
