(Financial Times) The global private funds industry is bracing for one of the most sweeping regulatoryreforms in its history as the US Securities and Exchange Commission prepares toimpose tough rules on private equity, real estate and hedge funds. The far-reaching rules, first proposed in February 2022, are aimed at protectinginvestors by requiring detailed quarterly reporting…

(Forbes) The affirmative action debate has entered the venture capital building, with a bang. On August 2, 2023, the American Alliance for Equal Rights founded by the notorious conservative crusader Edward Blum, sued the Atlanta-based Fearless Fund, claiming the fund is operating a “racially discriminatory program” in violation of Section 1981 of the Civil Rights Act of 1866. According…

(Forbes) Investment firms of all shapes and sizes have been busy creating investment vehicles known as ESG-focused funds that in the last several years have attracted billions upon billions of dollars from investors looking to profit from companies that are seeking to address environmental, social, and governance matters in a constructive manner. No doubt some…

(Bloomberg) Four years into a plan to eliminate its carbon emissions, Amazon.com Inc. has lost a key endorsement from the world’s leading watchdog of corporate climate goals. The Science Based Targets initiative, a United Nations-backed entity that validates net zero plans, has removed Amazon from its list of companies taking action on climate goals after…

(Grist) A state judge in Montana gave climate activists a decisive win on Monday when she ruled that the state’s support of fossil fuels violates their constitutional right to a clean and healthful environment. District Court Judge Kathy Seeley struck down as unconstitutional a state policy barring consideration of the impacts of greenhouse gas emissions…

(Rolling Stones) Timnit Gebru didn’t set out to work in AI. At Stanford, she studied electrical engineering — getting both a bachelor’s and a master’s in the field. Then she became interested in image analysis, getting her Ph.D. in computer vision. When she moved over to AI, though, it was immediately clear that there was something…

(Reuters) A China-based tutoring company has agreed to settle a U.S. government agency’s novel lawsuit claiming it used hiring software powered by artificial intelligence to illegally weed out older job applicants. The 2022 lawsuit against iTutorGroup Inc was the first by the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) involving a company’s use of AI to make employment…

(TechCrunch) Fearless Fund, an Atlanta-based fund that invests solely in women founders of color, has responded to the suit filed against it by the American Alliance for Equal Rights (AAER), accusing it of racial discrimination. In a statement, the fund said that it was “proud of the work [it has] done at the Fearless Fund and Fearless…

(WSJ) Many chief financial officers and corporate leaders have questions about how to navigate environmental and social issues in the wake of backlash against Target and Bud Light and continuing concerns about “greenwashing”—the practice of companies overstating their environmental policies. Lucy Parker, a senior partner at the Brunswick Group and co-author of a forthcoming book titled “The Activist Leader:…

(NYT) The Biden administration plans on Wednesday to issue new restrictions on American investments in certain advanced industries in China, according to people familiar with the deliberations, a move that supporters have described as necessary to protect national security but that will undoubtedly rankle Beijing. The measure would be one of the first significant steps the…