Suspect in attack on 65-year-old Filipina woman to face New York judge

NEW YORK—A New York man charged with assaulting a 65-year-old Asian woman in a hate crime was scheduled to appear before a Manhattan Criminal Court judge on Monday, as community activists demonstrated outside.

Police have identified Brandon Elliot, 38, as the man seen in a video kicking the woman to the ground and then kicking her head several times on March 29 near Times Square in Manhattan.

Elliot, on lifetime parole after serving a prison term for murdering his mother, was arraigned last week on two charges of second-degree assault as a hate crime and one count of first-degree attempted assault as a hate crime.

He was arrested at his New York City residence on March 30, police said.

"This attack would not have happened if he was not released," said Phil Wong, president of the Chinese American Citizens Alliance of Greater New York, in front of the courthouse.

The New York Times identified the victim as Vilma Kari, an immigrant from the Philippines, citing a law enforcement source. An NYPD spokesman declined to confirm her identity. According to the Times, Kari suffered a fractured pelvis.

Hate crimes reported against Asian Americans increased 149% in 2020 in 16 major U.S. cities compared with 2019, according to the Center for the Study of Hate and Extremism at California State University, San Bernardino.

Former U.S. President Donald Trump often referred to the coronavirus as the "China virus" and the "China plague."

Concern over such crimes was heightened when six Asian women were among eight people shot dead last month at Atlanta-area spas. A 21-year-old man was charged with the murders. Police have yet to determine a motive.

(Reporting by Roselle Chen; Editing by Richard Chang)

-reuters-

Apple Card faces probe over discrimination complaint

Something curious happened when a husband and wife recently compared their Apple Card spending limits.

David Heinemeier Hansson vented on Twitter that even though his spouse, Jamie Hansson, had a better credit score and other factors in her favor, her application for a credit line increase had been denied.

The prominent software developer wondered how his credit line could be 20 times higher, referring to Apple Card as a “sexist program” (with an expletive added for emphasis).

The card, a partnership between Apple and Goldman Sachs, made its debut in the United States in August.

“My wife and I filed joint tax returns, live in a community-property state, and have been married for a long time,” he wrote Thursday on Twitter. “Yet Apple’s black box algorithm thinks I deserve 20x the credit limit she does.”

Hansson’s tweets caught the attention of more than just his 350,000 followers.

They struck a nerve with New York state regulators, who announced Saturday that they would investigate the algorithm used by Apple Card to determine the creditworthiness of applicants.

Algorithms are codes or a set of instructions used by computers, search engines and smartphone applications to perform tasks, from ordering food delivery to hailing a ride — and yes, applying for credit.

The criteria used by the Apple Card are now being scrutinized by the New York State Department of Financial Services.

“Any algorithm that intentionally or not results in discriminatory treatment of women or any other protected class violates New York law,” an agency spokeswoman said in a statement Saturday night.

“DFS is troubled to learn of potential discriminatory treatment in regards to credit limit decisions reportedly made by an algorithm of Apple Card, issued by Goldman Sachs, and the Department will be conducting an investigation to determine whether New York law was violated and ensure all consumers are treated equally regardless of sex,” the statement said.

An Apple spokeswoman directed questions to a Goldman Sachs spokesman, Andrew Williams, who said that the company could not comment publicly on individual customers.

“Our credit decisions are based on a customer’s creditworthiness and not on factors like gender, race, age, sexual orientation or any other basis prohibited by law,” Williams said.

David Hansson did not respond to an interview request Saturday night.

His wife’s experience with the Apple Card, the first credit card offering by Goldman Sachs, does not appear to be an isolated case, however.

Steve Wozniak, who invented the Apple-1 computer with Steve Jobs and was a founder of the tech giant, responded to Hansson’s tweet with a similar account.

“The same thing happened to us,” Wozniak wrote. “I got 10x the credit limit. We have no separate bank or credit card accounts or any separate assets. Hard to get to a human for a correction though. It’s big tech in 2019.”

In addition to Goldman Sachs, Apple partnered with Mastercard on the Apple Card, which the companies hailed as a revolutionary “digital first” credit card that had no numbers and could be added to the Wallet app on the iPhone and used with Apple Pay.

A spokesman for Mastercard, which provides support for Apple Card’s global payments network, did not respond to a request for comment Saturday.

David Hansson, a Danish entrepreneur and California resident, is known for creating Ruby on Rails, a popular computer coding language used to create database-backed web applications. He is an author and decorated race car driver on the Le Mans circuit, according to a biography on his website.

In a subsequent tweet, he said that the Apple Card’s customer service representatives told his wife that they were not authorized to discuss the credit assessment process.

He said that customer service employees were unable to explain why the algorithm had designated her to be less creditworthy but had assured his wife that the bank was not discriminating against women.

An applicant’s credit score and income level are used by Goldman Sachs to determine creditworthiness, according to a support page for the Apple Card. Past due accounts, a checking account closed by a bank for overdrafts, liens and medical debts can negatively affect applications, the page stated.

On Friday, a day after David Hansson started railing on the Apple Card’s treatment of female credit applicants, he said his wife got a “VIP bump” to match his credit limit. He said that didn’t make up for the flawed algorithm used by Apple Card.

He said many women had shared similar experiences with him on Twitter and urged regulators to contact them.

“My thread is full of accounts from women who’ve been declared to be worse credit risks than their husbands, despite higher credit scores or incomes,” he said.


2019 The New York Times Company

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Ex-US vice president wants foreign aid withheld from LGBTQ-discriminating countries

Joe Biden said on Thursday he would withhold foreign aid from countries that persecute lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people, as he joined eight other Democratic presidential candidates at a televised forum on LGBTQ issues.

The Los Angeles event was the second major presidential forum dedicated to LGBTQ issues during the Democratic nominating campaign, following an event in Iowa last month that drew 10 of the 19 candidates vying to take on US President Donald Trump in the November 2020 election.

Biden, the front-runner in the Democratic race, struggled during the previous forum to articulate his positions, particularly his vote as a US senator for a military funding bill that included the "Don't ask, don't tell" policy, which banned harassment of closeted gay soldiers but barred those who were out from military service..

Biden later backed repeal of that policy and while he voted for a law defining marriage as between a man and a woman, he backed same-sex marriage before President Barack Obama, under whom he served as vice president.

On Thursday night, he defended his record and assailed efforts to curb LGBTQ rights.

"I would curtail foreign assistance to countries who engage in this kind of behavior," said Biden, adding he would establish an office in the State Department with the job of promoting LGBTQ rights around the world.

Biden was followed by South Bend, Indiana, Mayor Pete Buttigieg, who if elected would be the first openly gay US president.

Buttigieg was able to speak in the first person about his experience as a gay man. He recounted serving in Afghanistan in the military while he was still closeted and realizing he might die without being able to know what it was like to fall in love and marry.

On the subject of public health rules that bar gay men from giving blood dating from the HIV epidemic of the 1980s and 1990s, Buttigieg's personal experience colored his answer.

"My blood is not welcome in this country and it's not based on science," Buttigieg said. "It's based on prejudice."

As president, he said, he would move to change the policy.

CRITICISM OF TRUMP RECORD

US Senator Cory Booker opened the forum, stressing inclusion and acceptance.

"You can’t lead the people if you can’t love the people – all the people," he said.

US Senator Bernie Sanders, a top Democratic contender, missed the event while he recovers from a heart attack.

Gay rights advocates have expressed dismay at the Trump administration's record on LGBTQ issues, including a ban on transgender individuals serving in the US military.

Lawyers for the Department of Justice argued at the US Supreme Court this week that federal civil rights law does not prohibit employers from firing workers based on their transgender identity or sexual orientation.

Ahead of the forum, Buttigieg and US Senators Elizabeth Warren and Kamala Harris released plans to secure equality for LGBTQ people.

All 3 support the Equality Act, like most other Democrats, which would explicitly add LGBTQ protections to federal anti-discrimination law.

They also vowed to make pre-exposure prophylaxis, a drug that helps lower the risk of contracting the human immunodeficiency virus, accessible and affordable to all who want it.

Buttigieg said he would eliminate the HIV/AIDS epidemic by 2030, in part by restoring the White House Office of National AIDS Policy that has gone dormant under Trump.

All 3 candidates promised to elevate LGBTQ concerns as president. Warren said she would appoint a special envoy at the State Department, while Harris said she would create a White House position, chief advocate for LGBTQ+ Affairs, to coordinate efforts across the entire federal government.

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Walmart accused of discriminating against women workers

NEW YORK - US authorities believe global retail giant Walmart likely discriminated against some female employees in US stores, paying them less or denying them promotions, according to a media report on Tuesday.

The Equal Opportunity Employment Commission, a federal agency charged with preventing workplace discrimination, found reasonable grounds to support the allegations, according to The Wall Street Journal, which cited EEOC documents.

The finding, which concerns 178 women across 30 states, comes after many years of efforts by workers to seek compensation for alleged discrimination.

Since a class action lawsuit failed before the Supreme Court in 2011, nearly 2,000 women have lodged EEOC grievances alleging sex discrimination by the company, The Journal said.

The newspaper cited documents provided by a law firm representing the women, which is calling on Walmart to reach a just resolution with the workers.

Walmart said Tuesday the complaints were old and comparatively few, given that the company has employed millions of women since 2004. The company also called the EEOC findings vague.

"We have told the EEOC that we are willing to engage in the conciliatory process with all the cases," the company said in a statement.

"The allegations from these plaintiffs are more than 15 years old and are not representative of the positive experiences millions of women have had working at Walmart."

The cases have been before the EEOC since 2012 and the company said it has urged officials to speed up the process.

With more than 1.5 million workers, Walmart is America's largest private employer.

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Uber acts against LGBT discrimination during Dutch gay pride

THE HAGUE, Netherlands - Ride-hailing operator Uber announced Monday it has launched in the Netherlands a new function that allows LGBT users to report if they have suffered discrimination.

The "report button" made its debut during the Gay Pride festival in Amsterdam, which attracts hundreds of thousands of visitors each year.

The Netherlands is the first country where the app's new function is available but it could be rolled out in other countries as well, a company spokesman said.

The move is part of measures promoted by taxi services to fight discrimination in Amsterdam, where members of the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transexual community accuse drivers of regularly rejecting them as passengers.

"When I want to take a taxi, they often refuse to take me as a passenger. And sometimes, when I am actually seated in a taxi, the driver doesn't want to speak to me," Jennifer Hopelazz, an Australian drag queen based in Amsterdam for nearly 30 years, said in a video posted on the Uber Netherlands website Monday.

The latest incident occurred in early July when an Uber driver refused to pick up Hopelazz.

"I feel angry, wounded and humiliated," Hopelazz said in the video.

In a statement, Uber vowed to "work hard to fight against this discrimination".

"Unfortunately there still exist some examples of intolerance and discrimination in the taxi business," the company said.

Depending on the seriousness of the allegations, Uber will respond to complaints by mail, instant message or a phone call, and a warning could be sent to drivers accused of discrimination.

In turn, drivers will also be able to use the new function to report complaints.

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Amnesty International calls on S.Korea to end discrimination of gay soldiers

SEOUL - Amnesty International on Thursday called on South Korea to decriminalize same-sex relationships for men in the military, warning current laws fuel violence, discrimination and stigmatization against gay soldiers.

The human rights group said South Korea’s military code "does not comply with the international human rights obligations the state has signed on to".

"By institutionalizing discrimination, laws criminalizing sex between men reinforce systematic prejudices toward gay men, bisexual men, transgender people and non-binary people, whether in the military or in the street or in the home," Amnesty said in a report released on Thursday.

The South Korean ministry of defense did not immediately respond to a request for comment, but in the past South Korea has defended the code as necessary to maintain discipline.

The Amnesty report comes as South Korea engages in a broader debate over the future of its conscript military force - with recent court rulings clearing the way for conscientious objectors and political leaders promising to shorten service commitments - as well as controversy over changing social norms.

Amnesty urged South Korea to repeal Article 92-6 of the Military Criminal Act, which it said effectively prohibited and punished sex between men in the military.

"The military code in South Korea allows the invasion of privacy of soldiers alleged to be engaging in sex between men both on and off base, and on or off duty," the report concluded.

"Decriminalisation does not solve the entire issue, but it is a crucial first step towards respecting, protecting and fulfilling the human rights of LGBTI people."

Homosexual activity is not criminalized for South Korean civilians, but same-sex couples do not have the right to marry of adopt.

In March, the U.S.-based Human Rights Watch (HRW) submitted an amicus brief in a challenge to the military code now before South Korea's Constitutional Court, alleging that the code "violates many norms of international law".

"South Korea’s military sodomy law is a blight on the country’s human rights record and multiple human rights bodies have called for its abolition," Graeme Reid, the LGBT rights director at HRW, said at the time.

A survey of South Koreans released in March by the Academy of Korean Studies found about 45 percent of respondents were comfortable working around gay people, while less than 16 percent said they would be comfortable with a gay person in their family.

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Sephora to shut US stores for diversity training after racial incident

NEW YORK -- LVMH's Sephora beauty chain said it would close all its US stores, distribution centers and corporate offices on Wednesday to conduct diversity training for employees, a move that follows a racial incident involving a Grammy-nominated singer.

R&B singer SZA, who is black, said in April she was racially profiled at a Sephora store in Calabasas, California.

Sephora and LVMH representatives did not respond to questions on the reason for the training, which the company called "inclusion workshops." Louis Vuitton owner LVMH is based in Paris.

SZA said a Sephora employee she identified as "Sandy" called security to make sure the singer was not stealing from the store.

"We had a long talk. U have a blessed day Sandy," SZA said in a Twitter post.

"You are a part of the Sephora family, and we are committed to ensuring every member of our community feels welcome and included at our stores," Sephora said at the time in a response to the singer's post.

SZA is a Grammy nominee who also collaborated with Kendrick Lamar on the song "All the Stars" for the blockbuster movie "Black Panther."

"We will never stop building a community where diversity is expected, self-expression is honored, all are welcomed and you are included," Sephora said on its website, while announcing the workshops.

After SZA's tweet, Google reviews for the store spiked, with many users criticizing Sephora over the incident.

Barbadian singer Rihanna last month unveiled her new fashion brand with LVMH, a rare move by the French group to set up a label from scratch as it taps into soaring demand for celebrity collaborations in the luxury world.

Sephora's workshops come about a year after Starbucks closed 8,000 stores across the country for anti-bias training after a Philadelphia cafe manager's call to police resulted in the arrests of two black men who were waiting for a friend.

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Elton John slams Russian cuts to 'Rocketman' gay scenes

LOS ANGELES - Elton John on Friday criticized Russia's reported censorship of gay sex scenes in the new movie musical based on his life, "Rocketman," calling the decision "cruelly unaccepting of the love between 2 people."

John and the makers of "Rocketman," which depicts the warts-and-all rise to fame of the gay British musician, issued a statement after Russian media reported that scenes involving gay sex and drug-taking had been cut from a screening in Russia.

"We reject in the strongest possible terms the decision to pander to local laws and censor 'Rocketman' for the Russian market," John and the filmmakers said.

"That the local distributor has edited out certain scenes, denying the audience the opportunity to see the film as it was intended, is a sad reflection of the divided world we still live in and how it can still be so cruelly unaccepting of the love between 2 people," their statement added.

The English-language Moscow Times on Friday quoted a Russian film critic who had seen the film at its May 16 world premiere in Cannes as saying that several scenes, totaling about 5 minutes, had disappeared from the Russian version.

They include a male sex scene featuring actor Taron Egerton, who plays John, and a photograph during the closing credits in which the "Goodbye Yellow Brick Road" singer is pictured with his real-life husband David Furnish, who was a producer on the film, film critic Yegor Moskvitin was quoted as saying.

The movie, which has won warm reviews, began its worldwide rollout earlier this week.

John, 72, a prominent gay rights campaigner, has previously spoken out against a 2013 law banning the dissemination of "gay propaganda" among young Russians.

In 2015, Russian President Vladimir Putin said he would be willing to meet with John. Although the singer played a concert in Moscow in May 2016, no meeting with Putin took place.

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Brunei defends gay sex death penalty as more for ‘prevention than to punish’

LONDON—Brunei said new laws imposing the death penalty for gay sex and adultery were designed more for "prevention than to punish" in response to the United Nations' condemnation of the measures.

The United Nations said the Muslim-majority former British protectorate violated human rights on April 3 by implementing Islamic laws which punish sodomy, adultery and rape with the death penalty, including by stoning, and theft with amputation.

But Erywan Yusof, Brunei's second minister of foreign affairs, defended the new laws in a letter to the United Nations, saying the move was focused more on "prevention than punishment".

"Its aim is to educate, deter, rehabilitate and nurture rather than to punish," Yusof wrote to the United Nations.

In the letter Yusof said the offenses would not apply to non-Muslims in Brunei, which has has been at the center of a media storm since it announced the rollout of more Sharia laws in March.

Brunei, a small Southeast Asian country of about 400,000 people, has consistently defended its right to implement the laws, elements of which were first adopted in 2014 and which have been rolled out in phases since then.

Its U.N. letter said the "criminalization of adultery and sodomy is to safeguard the sanctity of family lineage and marriage of individual Muslims particularly women".

U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres on April 3, through a spokesman, said "human rights are to be upheld in relation to every person everywhere without any kind of discrimination".

"The legislation approved is in clear violation with the principles expressed," his spokesman said.

The U.N. has noted that the right to be free from discrimination was enshrined in article 2 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.

British foreign minister Jeremy Hunt said he had met with Yusof who assured him that prosecutions for gay sex were "unlikely" but this was not satisfactory. "(Yusof's) suggestion that Sharia prosecutions are in practice unlikely is not acceptable: everyone should be free to be who they are and love who they want," Hunt said on Twitter.

Celebrities, from actor George Clooney and singer Elton John, have galvanized support against the new laws, with protesters boycotting the Dorchester Collection range of hotels, owned by the Brunei Investment Agency, across the world.

Over the past week, travel agents, London's transport network and finance houses were among a rising number of companies to cut ties with businesses owned by Brunei. (Reporting by Hugo Greenhalgh @hugo_greenhalgh; Editing by Belinda Goldsmith Please credit the Thomson Reuters Foundation, the charitable arm of Thomson Reuters that covers humanitarian news, women's and LGBT+ rights, human trafficking, property rights, and climate change. Visit https://news.trust.org)

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Facebook settles with rights groups on ad discrimination

WASHINGTON - Facebook unveiled major changes to how it uses targeted advertising on Tuesday, settling a legal challenge alleging it discriminated in messages on jobs, housing, credit and other services.

The leading social network said housing, employment or credit ads will no longer be allowed to target by age, gender or zip code -- a practice critics argued had led to discrimination.

The changes came as part of a settlement with the National Fair American Civil Liberties Union, National Fair Housing Alliance, Communication Workers of America and others.

"Today's changes mark an important step in our broader effort to prevent discrimination and promote fairness and inclusion on Facebook," chief operating officer Sheryl Sandberg said in a statement announcing the changes.

"But our work is far from over. We're committed to doing more, and we look forward to engaging in serious consultation and work with key civil rights groups, experts and policymakers to help us find the right path forward."

The ACLU called the agreement a "historic settlement" that will result in major changes to Facebook's advertising platform.

Under the settlement, Facebook will take proactive steps to prevent advertisers from discrimination when sending job, housing or credit ads to users of Facebook, Instagram and Messenger. 

"Advertisers will no longer be able to exclude users from learning about opportunities for housing, employment or credit based on gender, age or other protected characteristics," ACLU attorneys Galen Sherwin and Esha Bhandari said in a blog post.

"Ad-targeting platforms can be used to exclude users on the basis of race, gender or age, as well as interests or groups that can serve as proxies for those categories (think 'soccer moms' or 'Kwanzaa celebrators')."

The ACLU said it began exerting pressure on Facebook several years ago to stop its use of an "ethnic affinity" category, which labeled users as Asian American, Hispanic or African American based on what they liked on Facebook.

The organization said Facebook took some steps to eliminate discriminatory targeting but did not always follow through. 

For certain ad categories, Facebook will create a separate portal for such ads with a much more limited set of targeting options excluding Facebook users' age, gender, race or other characteristics.

Facebook will also implement a system of automated and human review to ensure compliance and to study the potential for unintended biases in algorithmic modeling.

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After New York City’s war with Amazon, Uber could be next

NEW YORK — After New York City and Amazon went to war over a new campus in Queens, the city is heading into battle with another tech giant: Uber.

Mayor Bill de Blasio approved a yearlong cap on Uber vehicles last summer, making New York the first major US city to rein in the booming ride-hail company. Now de Blasio wants to extend the cap, prompting Uber to sue the city last week to overturn the law.

Uber has fiercely opposed the cap, arguing that it hurts New Yorkers who rely on the app, especially outside Manhattan, where there are fewer transit options. The lawsuit called the city’s regulatory approach “unfortunate, irresponsible and irrational.”

De Blasio, a Democrat with presidential ambitions, responded by saying the city’s new rules — both the cap and a measure to raise wages for drivers — were needed.

“No legal challenge changes the fact that Uber made congestion on our roads worse and paid their drivers less than a living wage,” said Seth Stein, a spokesman for the mayor. “The city’s new laws aim to change that.”

Like many other cities across the world, New York is struggling to respond to the explosive growth of the ride-hailing industry. The influx of vehicles has raised concerns about street congestion, working conditions for drivers, the decimation of the yellow cab industry and the siphoning of riders from public transit.

The lawsuit comes at a critical moment for Uber and its main competitor, Lyft, as both companies rush to go public. Uber, which could be valued as high as $120 billion, is likely to be one of the biggest-ever public offerings by a tech company.

The two ride-hail companies have bristled over new regulations in New York, Uber’s largest market in the United States. Lyft recently sued to stop the rules aimed at raising driver pay.

Uber and Lyft are also battling each other to dominate New York’s thriving bike markets. Lyft bought Motivate, the company that operates CitiBike, the city’s popular bike-share program. Uber bought another bike company called Jump and began offering electric bikes in the Bronx and Staten Island.

Uber supports the driver pay rules, but argued that the cap hurts drivers who want to join its app.

“It is disappointing to see the de Blasio administration remain singularly focused on a cap that evidence suggests is doing nothing to relieve congestion while preventing thousands of New Yorkers from earning a living wage,” Josh Gold, a spokesman for Uber, said in a statement.

Some business leaders worry that Amazon’s decision to abandon its deal with New York could hurt the city’s image as a tech hub.

But Nicole Gelinas, a senior fellow at the Manhattan Institute, said the struggle with Uber is not a tech issue — it’s about worsening street traffic.

“We’re not really afraid of being branded anti-tech,” Gelinas said. "In the long term, our problem is how do we deal with all of this growth — and not the risk that we’re going to drive away that growth with a little bit of rhetoric and a little regulation.”

De Blasio has a bitter history with Uber. When the mayor first proposed a cap in 2015, Uber launched an aggressive attack, introducing a “de Blasio view” in the company’s app to blame him for long wait times. Uber won the debate and became shorthand in his administration for an embarrassing defeat.

But Uber was on the defensive last year when the cap idea was revived by Corey Johnson, the City Council speaker. Uber’s reputation had been harmed by accusations of gender discrimination and other scandals. It hired a new chief executive and a new leader for New York to try to improve its image.

The number of for-hire vehicles in the city has surged to more than 100,000 vehicles, from about 60,000 in 2015. But while Uber and other companies are flourishing, many of their drivers are not. About 40 percent of drivers have incomes so low that they qualify for Medicaid and about 18 percent qualify for food stamps, according to a study by prominent economists last year.

The cap was expected to last a year while the city studied the proliferation of ride-hail trips. At the end of that period, the city’s taxi commission would review the number of vehicle licenses and decide on how they would be regulated.

Last month, de Blasio said in a radio interview that he wanted to “put ongoing caps in place on the for-hire vehicles.” Officials at City Hall confirmed that the mayor was considering extending the cap.

Uber’s lawsuit argues that it was not legal for the city to delegate the power to cap vehicles to the taxi commission. If Uber cannot meet growing rider demand, the lawsuit says that could hurt the state’s efforts to raise money for the subway through new fees on ride-hail trips.

The lawsuit, filed in state supreme court in Manhattan, questions the city’s motives: “This is less a ‘study’ and more a ‘post hoc rationalization’ of a remedy the city appears to have already selected.”

Lyft also opposes a permanent cap. “Any extension of this misguided policy would do even more significant, long-term damage to drivers and riders,” Lyft said in a statement.

The City Council is proud of the new regulations imposed on the ride-hailing industry and had the authority to approve them, said Jacob Tugendrajch, a spokesman for Johnson. The speaker, his office said, wants the taxi commission to make a decision about any future limits on vehicles based on data from its study.

The city’s taxi commissioner, Meera Joshi, recently announced that she was stepping down in March. Her successor will have a powerful role in determining the industry’s future.

In a separate lawsuit, Lyft challenged the city’s rules to raise driver wages to more than $17 an hour. Lyft claims the rules give Uber an unfair advantage because it judges companies differently based on their “utilization rate,” or how often drivers have a passenger in their car versus driving around empty.

The approach gives “the largest company with the biggest market share a built-in and perpetual advantage over companies with lower utilizations,” Lyft’s lawsuit said.

Lyft has sold itself as the more ethical ride-hail option. But the lawsuit hurt its image among some riders like Brad Lander, a councilman from Brooklyn, who said he deleted the app.

After facing harsh criticism, Lyft announced that it would comply with the new pay rules while its legal case proceeded.

Uber and Lyft say they care about public policy, but the lawsuits show their first priority is self interest, said Bruce Schaller, a former city transportation official who has closely studied the industry. The companies face a difficult challenge of balancing both profits and their public image. In this case, Schaller said, Uber chose to protect its bottom line.

“Uber in particular has been playing super nice since its change in management a year ago and particularly as they get closer to the IPO,” he said. “Suing the biggest city in the country isn’t playing super nice.”

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Harvard on trial over alleged discrimination against Asians

Harvard University went on trial Monday over an opaque admissions selection process that critics say discriminates against students of Asian origin.

A lawsuit has challenged the use of race as a factor in Harvard admissions -- a decades-old push to boost minority enrollments at America's oldest and perhaps most prestigious university.

Federal Judge Allison Dale Burroughs heard opening arguments Monday in the non-jury civil trial in Boston, which is expected to last three weeks.

Harvard denies discriminating against Asians but defends its use of broader selection criteria than academic excellence, such as personality, to form a diverse student body.

The university also notes that the proportion of students of Asian origin has increased substantially since 2010, and today account for 23 percent of the 2,000 students admitted to the freshman class, compared to 15 percent blacks and 12 percent Hispanics, out of 40,000 applicants.

Pitted against it is an organization called "Students for Fair Admissions," led by a conservative white activist, Edward Blum, who previously attacked the "affirmative action" policies at the University of Texas.

The US Supreme Court decided against him in 2016, upholding the university's admissions policy.

In Monday's opening arguments, the group's lawyer Adam Mortara claimed that Harvard had used personality criteria to suppress Asian admissions in favor of black, Hispanic and white applicants.

Harvard "let the wolf of racial bias in through the front door," the Boston Globe quoted him as saying.

Bill Lee, the university's lawyer, argued however that "Harvard cannot achieve its educational goals without considering race."

Race is never a negative in admissions, he said.

The Trump administration has weighed in in favor of Blum's suit, asserting that Harvard engages in "racial balancing" in its admissions process at the expense of students of Asian origin.

Whatever the outcome, analysts expect this ultra-sensitive case to wind up before the Supreme Court, where a conservative majority has been solidified with the addition of Trump nominee Brett Kavanaugh.

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Harvard admissions bias case can proceed to trial: U.S. judge

BOSTON - A federal judge on Friday cleared the way for a lawsuit accusing Harvard University of discriminating against Asian-American applicants to go to trial, a closely watched case that could influence the use of race in college admissions decisions.

U.S. District Judge Allison Burroughs in Boston rejected dueling motions by Harvard and a nonprofit group suing the Ivy League university to rule in their favor ahead of a non-jury trial set to begin on Oct. 15.

The ruling came after the U.S. Justice Department, which has been investigating Harvard for potential civil rights violations over its affirmative action policy, in August threw its support behind the 2014 lawsuit by Students for Fair Admissions Inc (SFFA).

The group, headed by prominent anti-affirmative action activist Edward Blum, has alleged that Harvard's admissions process, which factors in race, significantly disadvantages Asian-Americans compared with other groups.

Burroughs wrote that rather than presenting her with undisputed facts and evidence that would allow her to rule without overseeing a trial, Harvard and SFFA had filed motions that were "essentially mirror images of one another."

"Whether SFFA may prove its intentional discrimination claim requires a close review of the conflicting expert testimony, the available documents, and the testimony of the admissions office employees in the context of a trial," Burroughs wrote.

Harvard in a statement said it does not discriminate against Asian-Americans and looked forward to defending itself at trial.

Blum declined to comment.

The U.S. Supreme Court has ruled that universities may use affirmative action to help minority applicants get into college. Conservatives have said such programs can hurt whites as well as Asian-Americans.

In court papers, SFFA claimed an Asian-American male applicant with a 25 percent chance of admission would have a 35 percent chance if he were white, 75 percent chance if he were Hispanic and 95 percent chance if he were black.

Cambridge, Massachusetts-based Harvard has denied that it uses a quota system or has engaged in "racial balancing." It has criticized the lawsuit as an effort to attack the right of colleges to consider race as an admissions factor.

After President Donald Trump, a Republican, took office last year, the Justice Department began investigating whether Harvard's policies are discriminatory because they limit Asian-Americans' acceptance.

Yale University on Wednesday announced that the Justice Department was also investigating it over similar claims. The university denied discriminating against Asian-Americans.

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Woman apologizes after racist rant against Pinay goes viral

A woman from Beaverton, Oregon has apologized after her racist rant against a Filipina in Portland was posted on Facebook and viewed millions of times.

Filipina Selina Cairel of Vancouver, Washington posted the video to her Facebook page on September 12, showing Sierra Measelle and her friend at a parking lot.

The September 11 incident began when Measelle insinuated that Cairel could not drive because she’s Asian, followed by more insults.

In her post, Cairel said, “I want to make sure she gets seen and her racist, ignorant behavior is exposed.”

The video was viewed more than 2.5 million times, and netizens soon identified her.

Measelle, who is reportedly of Native American descent, apologized in an Instagram post for her “ignorant and hateful comments,” and said she plans to turn “this negative situation into a positive learning experience.”

Cairel said she will eventually forgive Measelle.

Meanwhile, in a later post, Cairel who is half-Filipino and half-English posted a photo of her passport with laughing emoji saying, “I promise I'm legal guys."

Read more on Balitang America

source: news.abs-cbn.com

Harvard accused of anti-Asian admissions policy

The U.S. Justice Department accused Harvard University Thursday of discriminating against Asian applicants, ramping up the Trump administration's opposition to widespread policies seeking to manage racial balance among students.

The department filed a statement with the Boston federal court endorsing a lawsuit by an Asian students group that charged the prestigious university with preferring whites, blacks and Hispanics at the expense of more academically deserving Asians.

The move came two months after the Trump government announced it was cancelling the previous Obama administration's support for so-called "affirmative action" programs, by which universities seek to boost the numbers of under-represented minorities, particularly Hispanics and African-Americans.

The 2014 lawsuit by Students for Fair Admissions said Harvard's affirmative action violated civil rights laws by discriminating against people of Asian origin. 

Harvard recently moved in court to have the judge rule without a jury trial, arguing that its admission of Asian-Americans has risen 29 percent over the last decade.

Harvard also said that in the class of students entering the university this year, 22.7 percent were Asian-American, 15.5 percent African-American, and 12.2 percent Hispanic.

The Justice Department opposes a summary ruling, saying Harvard has not proven its lack of racial bias.

"Harvard acknowledges that it voluntarily uses race as a factor in deciding whether to offer certain young adults admission to, and the substantial educational benefits of, its elite institution," the Justice Department said in its filing Thursday.

"The record evidence demonstrates that Harvard's race-based admissions process significantly disadvantages Asian-American applicants compared to applicants of other racial group," it said.

"No American should be denied admission to school because of their race," Attorney General Jeff Sessions said in the statement.

The Supreme Court has ruled repeatedly in favor of the concept of affirmative action in the past, essentially accepting that the record of discrimination against black Americans justifies giving them an extra advantage in admissions.

The court has rejected specific quotas but as recently as 2016 endorsed a race-conscious admissions policy.

But two conservative Supreme Court judges nominated by President Donald Trump -- one approved last year and one waiting to be approved by the Senate -- could swing the high court against the concept if a new challenge comes to it.

source: news.abs-cbn.com

California woman sues Walmart for 'segregated' black products

LOS ANGELES, United States - A Californian woman sued supermarket chain Walmart on Friday, accusing the company of implementing extra security measures on products marketed toward black people.

Essie Grundy, 43, says all beauty products marketed for black people are placed in a locked glass case, while cosmetics targeting other ethnicities are freely available at the Walmart near her Perris home, about an hour southeast of Los Angeles.

When she asked a shop employee why the products were under lock and key, Grundy was told it "was a directive from corporate headquarters," longtime women's rights attorney Gloria Allred told reporters.

The employee also told Grundy "she would need to be escorted to the cash register with the product so she could purchase it," Allred added.

When Grundy raised the issue with a store manager, she says she did not receive a clear response, and no action was taken.

Grundy says she also visited two other Walmarts close to her home, and in one cosmetics marketed for African Americans were freely available, but monitored with security surveillance, unlike other products.

"As a result of this discriminatory business practice and policy, we filed a lawsuit this morning against Walmart," Allred said, without specifying the damages being sought.

"It perpetuates a racial stereotytpe that African Americans are thieves."

The lawsuit demands an immediate stop to the practice -- noting the humiliation and psychological trauma Grundy was made to feel.

Grundy, a 43-year-old mother who owns an online clothing business, returned to the shop after the initial incident and filmed the beauty department.

The video was played during the press conference -- showing men's and women's shampoos, body creams and combs of little retail value among other products with labels featuring black models, all arranged in a locked glass case.

"We do not tolerate discrimination of any kind at Walmart. We serve more than 140 million customers weekly, crossing all demographics," the retail giant told AFP in a statement.

"Some products such as electronics, automotive, cosmetics and other personal care products are subject to additional security," which Walmart said individual stores determined "using data."

The issue of Walmart securing beauty products marketed toward black people has already been a topic of controversy in the US -- most notably in Virginia, where the practice was denounced by the United Food and Commercial Workers International Union.

source: news.abs-cbn.com

Google engineer fired for sexist memo sues ex-employer

SAN FRANCISCO - A Google engineer who was fired after writing a memo defending the gender gap in Silicon Valley tech jobs as a matter of biology has sued his former employer for discrimination.

The Dhillon Law Group said it was filing a class action law suit on behalf of James Damore and others it says were discriminated against due to their "perceived conservative political views," their gender and their Caucasian race.

The complaint, filed in a court in Santa Clara, California, says Damore and his colleagues "were ostracized, belittled, and punished for their heterodox political views, and for the added sin of their birth circumstances of being Caucasians and/or males."

The company uses illegal hiring quotas to achieve a certain percentage of women and minority employees, and "Google's management goes to extreme -- and illegal -- lengths to encourage hiring managers to take protected categories such as race and/or gender into consideration as determinative hiring factors, to the detriment of Caucasian and male employees," the complaint stated.

Google fired Damore in August after he distributed a 3,000-word missive arguing that the "preferences and abilities of men and women differ in part due to biological causes and that these differences may explain why we don't see equal representation of women in tech and leadership."

Google chief Sundar Pichai said "portions of the memo violate our code of conduct and cross the line by advancing harmful gender stereotypes in our workplace."

"To suggest a group of our colleagues have traits that make them less biologically suited to that work is offensive and not OK," he added.

However, Pichai defended the author's right to criticize Google training, workplace ideology and whether programs promoting workplace diversity are adequately open to all.

source: news.abs-cbn.com

Canada announces ban on transgender discrimination

MONTREAL - Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau announced legislation Monday to protect transgender people from hate speech and discrimination, as debate rages in the United States over laws restricting their rights.

"Even today, despite all the obstacles we have overcome, the battles we have won, and the victories we have celebrated, we are still witnesses, and in some cases, victims of injustices," Trudeau said in a speech at a Montreal event hosted by gay rights group Fondation Emergence.

"We must continue to demand true equality," he said. "We must carry on the legacy of those who fought for justice by being bold and ambitious in our actions."

The bill is to be officially unveiled by Justice Minister Jody Wilson-Raybould on Tuesday, the International Day Against Homophobia, Transphobia and Biphobia.

It will add "gender identity" alongside race, religion, age, sex and sexual orientation as prohibited grounds for discrimination under the Canadian Human Rights Act, and add transgender persons to a list of groups protected from hate-mongering under the Criminal Code, according to Wilson-Raybould's mandate letter from the prime minister.

The Canadian parliament's previous attempts to pass similar legislation failed. But this time, due to a Liberal majority in the House, the measures are expected to pass easily.

Trudeau's father, Pierre Elliott Trudeau, was Canada's justice minister when Ottawa introduced a Criminal Code amendment to decriminalize homosexuality. He famously commented at the time (two years before it became law): "There's no place for the state in the bedrooms of the nation."

In July, Justin Trudeau will be the first sitting prime minister to participate in a gay pride parade, in Montreal.

Following his speech, Fondation Emergence honoured him with an award for his promotion of gay rights, including allowing sexually active gay men to donate blood, and pardoning gay men who were convicted of gross indecency before homosexuality was decriminalized in 1969.

South of the border, meanwhile, a debate on equal rights in the United States has been raging over a flurry of initiatives targeting lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) communities since a historic Supreme Court decision last year legalized same-sex marriage nationwide.

Last week, the US federal government and North Carolina's governor launched dueling lawsuits over a state law restricting transgender Americans' use of public restrooms.

The North Carolina law, passed on March 23, requires transgender people to use public restrooms corresponding to the gender listed on their birth certificate.

It provoked a public outcry and led several high-profile entertainers and big companies to join activists in denouncing the measure, pulling the plug on events and investments in the state.

source: www.abs-cbnnews.com

Suspect in Virginia TV shooting had history of workplace issues

The suspected gunman in the shooting deaths of two television journalists in Virginia on Wednesday was a veteran anchorman with a history of workplace grievances who had previously sued a Florida station alleging discrimination because he was black.

While authorities said they had not determined a motive, perceived racism appeared to be a factor in the shootings, according to recent postings the suspect is believed to have made on social media and a fax that ABC News said the suspect sent.

Vester Flanagan, 41, who went on the air under the name Bryce Williams, was a former employee of RacistWDBJ7 in Virginia, where both of the slain journalists worked. The journalists, who were both white, were killed during a live television broadcast earlier this morning.

Posts on a Twitter feed by a man identifying himself as Bryce Williams, Flanagan's on-air name, accused one of the victims of "racist comments," and noted that a complaint had been filed with a government agency that enforces discrimination claims.

In a 23-page fax ABC News said was sent two hours after the shooting, he cited as his tipping point the racially motivated shooting that killed nine black churchgoers in Charleston, South Carolina, earlier this summer.

Saying he had suffered racial discrimination, sexual harassment and bullying at work, Flanagan described himself as "a human powder keg," the network said.

Flanagan aired similar grievances in a 2000 lawsuit filed in U.S. federal court against a Florida station, WTWC-TV in Tallahassee. In that suit, he said a producer had called him a "monkey," and he accused a supervisor of calling black people lazy for not taking advantage of college scholarship opportunities.

The Florida case was settled and dismissed the next year, court records show.

One of his former Florida colleagues remembered Flanagan as "quirky," but said he never displayed behavior suggesting he would be capable of such a violent crime.

"He had his idiosyncrasies, a little quirky sometimes," said Michael Walker, the weekend producer at the Tallahassee station when Flanagan was working as a weekend anchor. "It probably wasn't any different than any other on-air personality."

Walker, who is also black, noted that he had not experienced discrimination at the station.

Flanagan, who accused the station of terminating his contract because he had filed a report of racism with a state agency, said in the lawsuit he suffered emotional distress and financial losses as a result of his treatment at the station.

The NBC affiliate, which stopped broadcasting newscasts in late 2000, said at the time of the lawsuit that his contract was not renewed due to "corporate belt-tightening," according to an article in the Tallahassee Democrat at that time.

Representatives from the station could not immediately be reached for comment.

Flanagan's 20-year career in journalism included stints at local news stations in San Francisco; Savannah, Georgia; and Midland, Texas, according to his LinkedIn profile. It said he also worked briefly outside of journalism as a customer service representative.

He graduated from San Francisco State University in 1995 with a degree in radio and television, the school confirmed.

According to a Facebook page believed to belong to the suspect, he was originally from Oakland, California, but most recently living in Roanoke, Virginia, where WDBJ7 broadcasts.

There, he gained a reputation as someone who was difficult to work with because of his anger, station manager Jeff Marks said during a live broadcast.

"Vester was an unhappy man," Marks said, adding that he had to be escorted out of the building by police after he was terminated from the station in 2013.

"He did not take that well," he added.

source: www.abs-cbnnews.com

How this Pinay coped with discrimination in Switzerland

SWITZERLAND - Since moving to Switzerland 19 years ago, I have experienced my fair share of discrimination: My race, job, size and religion among others.

I took it all in with dignity, proud of my roots as a Filipino. It was not easy. But I managed to keep my sanity by focusing on my family, growing children, work, and projects that will help reach out to others.

Looking back, I should say I was able to hold my ground during encounters wherein any other individual would have shied and ran away.

At school

When my daughters got sick for two weeks, I was deprived of sleep and forgot to bring a document to the kindergarten class. Across the street, the Swiss-Italian kindergarten teacher screamed at me in Italian, “Hey, Asian brownie, what kind of memory do you have? I heard that many women in your country are in prostitution. Is that how you fished out your Swiss husband?”

Other mothers waited for my reaction as I fought to hold back tears that were threatening to fall. I replied calmly in Italian, “Can I set an appointment with you so we can talk about my country?”

The Swiss Italian teacher who did not speak English was quite impressed on how I fluently spoke Italian without any foreign accent. I told her that her overt, hostile statement was offensive, based on her very limited knowledge of the Philippines no thanks to Swiss-Italian TV programs.

Aided by a travel book, I explained to her at great length our Philippine history as well as how much we value our education, family, strong spiritual foundation and concern for compatriots. Needless to say, I gained her respect.

At home

The worst discrimination I suffered was with my former, Swiss-Italian husband. He treated me like I was “nothing.” For him a woman’s role is to obey the man, serve the man and stay at home. As a religious woman taking seriously the vows of matrimony, I submitted myself to his chauvinistic demands but was treated like a slave for seven years. Luckily, I found a good job at an aviation company, giving me the courage to file for divorce.

Even that did not free me from more racial slurs.

Once during shopping, I was approached by an Italian woman shouting insults at me.

“Stay away from my son! You’re a divorced woman with baggage, too young and small to be a mother! You married a Swiss to have a better life. You come from a Third World country, just looking for someone to lean on,” screamed the woman.

Later, I realized that her 30-year-old son was one of my suitors, sending me flowers. With controlled anger and a fair amount of respect for the woman, I shot back in fluent Italian, “If you wish to talk to me, do so without prejudice.”

I added, “What is it in a Third World country that makes First World people like you behave in the way you do? I married because of love but was treated like a slave. My daughters are not baggage, they are my life. I’m not interested in your son!”

At work

While working in a law firm, I had to endure daily insults from a lawyer.

One such encounter went this way: “Didn’t you consider how lucky you are working for us and not work as a maid like your compatriots in Italy or are you much better in cleaning toilets than working on my court cases?”

Calmly I replied, “To match your provocations with anger will only court disaster. Most of my compatriots are degree holders too. It’s the system that does not give them much better job opportunities because companies save money on lower salary by giving the lowly jobs to migrants.”

Fellow Filipinos discriminate, too
A Filipino friend, jealous of my suitors of German, French, Italian, Swiss, Dutch, Finnish and American nationalities, showed her claws by spreading rumors about me to our friends.

“She’s very much a European now, so modern, so precise, too independent. Maybe, she is collecting passports so she dated them,” remarked the friend.

It’s one of those sad realities that some kababayans don’t look at divorce with an open mind. One time, as I was going out of the church, a lady exclaimed at me:

“You left your husband! You’re doomed for life! You still go to church?”

I replied, “Did the church issue a ban on divorcees? Did you see me melt to ashes when I knelt down to pray? Or do you want to check my ticket to heaven or hell?”

Things to do
How should you act when facing discrimination?

It is wise to reply and act in a diplomatic way with self-respect and dignity intact. Learn to speak fluently the language of your new country. Knowing their history, culture and social mores will give you more confidence when talking to them.

Don’t let any form of discrimination lower your self-esteem.

Be the better person, exercise patience, broaden your insights, and weigh the degree of the circumstance. That way you can flexibly handle the situation with wit, humor, dignity, finesse, wisdom and respect.

You have RIGHTS against discrimination

Following the Amsterdam Treaty in 2009, The European Union mandates every member state to protect your rights against discrimination in religion or belief in school or workplace, sexual orientation in the areas of social protection, social advantages and access to good and services, ancestry, skin color, disability, age, chronic diseases and civil status.

You have a right to go to court and are entitled to compensation when it is proven that you have been discriminated.

What you should do if you feel discriminated?

1. Be informed - know the official organizations in your country that helps victims of discrimination, the legal and administrative procedures, the nature of legal coercion available, how to prove that the discrimination took place, etc.

2. Write it down - make notes of what happened, who said what, where did it take place, were there witnesses and why did you feel that you were discriminated.

3. Register it with the authorities - you can go to the police, call anti-discrimination hotlines in your country or talk to official organizations that can help you. It is important to make your complaint official.

For more information visit www.stop-discrimination.info

source: www.abs-cbnnews.com