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Most U.S. employers remain committed to diversity, equity, and inclusion despite political, regulatory, and legal pressure, according to a 2026 Catalyst and NYU Meltzer Center survey of 2,267 employees and business leaders. The survey found that 80% of respondents said their organizations still support workplace inclusion, even though 55% of companies have publicly signaled some retreat from DEI. Among non-federal contractors, 52% reported increasing inclusion efforts over the past three years, while 20% decreased them. Federal contractors faced greater pressure, with 51% scaling back inclusion initiatives, although 32% still expanded them. The report also found that employees and leaders continue to see business benefits from DEI, including stronger reputation, sales, recruitment, retention, innovation, and efficiency. Legal experts cited in the article said well-designed DEI programs, such as inclusive recruiting, voluntary demographic data collection, mentoring, training, and employee resource groups, remain lawful.

 

Forbes

Finance Risk Intelligence Is Entering Its Next Era Body

Finance teams have invested heavily in visibility, monitoring, and risk detection. Yet identifying risk is only the beginning.

As AI adoption accelerates across finance, organizations need a trusted way to move from intelligence to action without sacrificing governance, accountability, or control.

Last week, Oversight introduced Oversight Actions, extending Finance Risk Intelligence beyond detection and prioritization into governed execution. The announcement outlines a new approach to helping finance teams transform insights into measurable outcomes while maintaining accountability and trust.

Read the Announcement

 

Kohl’s has appointed former Foot Locker chief operating officer Elliott Rodgers as its new COO, effective September 9th, as the department store retailer continues efforts to improve performance and execute its turnaround strategy. Mr Rodgers will oversee Kohl’s enterprise operations, including stores, supply chain and distribution centers, procurement and loss prevention, reporting directly to chief executive Michael Bender. The appointment follows Kohl’s recent hiring of Matt Ward as head of supply chain and comes as the retailer works to improve its merchandise offering, restore previously reduced product categories and strengthen its value proposition after several years of weak sales performance.

 

Wall Street Journal

Mondelēz International has appointed consumer goods veteran Amit Banati as chief financial officer with effect from July 1st, succeeding Luca Zaramella, who became chief operating officer in January after more than eight years as CFO. Mr Banati joins from Kenvue and previously served as CFO of Kellogg and Kellanova, having also held senior roles at Cadbury Schweppes, Kraft Foods, and Procter & Gamble.

 

Reuters

SpaceX has agreed to acquire artificial intelligence (AI) coding company Cursor in an all-stock transaction valued at $60bn, marking one of the largest artificial intelligence acquisitions to date and coming just days after SpaceX’s IPO. Under the agreement, Cursor shareholders will receive $60bn in SpaceX stock, with the transaction expected to close in the third quarter of 2026. Founded in 2023, Cursor has become a leading provider of AI-powered coding tools that allow developers to work across models from companies including OpenAI, Anthropic, Google, and xAI. The company was previously valued at $29.3bn following a financing round in late 2025. The acquisition strengthens SpaceX’s expanding artificial intelligence ambitions and could help the company attract enterprise customers beyond its existing AI offerings, including Grok. SpaceX plans to combine Cursor’s software expertise with its extensive AI infrastructure, including the Colossus supercomputing platform developed by its xAI division.

 

Reuters

Wall Street Journal

The Antitrust Division of the U.S. Justice Department has cleared Paramount ​Skydance's planned $110bn acquisition of Warner Bros. Discovery, saying the deal was unlikely to harm competition or consumers. The DOJ approved the merger without requiring any divestitures, behavioral remedies or concessions, according to a source. The deal is opposed by many in the entertainment industry who fear it could precipitate mass layoffs, among other concerns. The Antitrust Division said its eight-month review “determined based on the evidence received in its investigation that the transaction is not likely to result in harm to competition or American consumers” and could ultimately increase it by creating a stronger competitor across streaming, television and film.

 

Politico

Reuters

Wall Street Journal

Meta chief executive Mark Zuckerberg has told staff that the social media company has made mistakes in ​the artificial intelligence (AI) transformation of its workforce, according to an internal memo seen ‌by Reuters. "Given ⁠the complexity of these changes, we've made mistakes and will almost certainly make more," ​Zuckerberg wrote in the memo. He also said that he is "focused on providing as much stability as possible" regarding future organizational changes. "I don't want to overpromise because the world is changing in ways that are out of our control," he wrote.  Mr. Zuckerberg reiterated that Meta does not expect more company-wide layoffs this ​year.

 

Reuters

The International Labour Organization (ILO) has agreed ​to adopt the first binding employment standards for gig workers in sectors such as ride-hailing and food ‌delivery. The Decent Work in the Platform Economy Convention, which was adopted at the 114th annual International Labour Conference in Geneva, aims to extend labor protections to hundreds of millions of people worldwide who work through digital platforms. A growing number of workers are being excluded from standard labor protections due to their classification as independent contractors rather than employees, and the protections include an end to such classification, as well as enforcement of minimum wage requirements and obligations including healthcare, sick leave and social security contributions. “For the first time in the history of international law, the women and men who move our cities, who clean and care in our homes . . . will be named, recognised and protected by a binding international standard,” said Amanda Brown, vice chair of the ILO’s Workers’ Group.

 

Al Jazeera

Reuters

Daily Star (Bangladesh)

U.S. industrial production rose 0.1% in May, according to Federal Reserve data, undershooting economists’ expectations for a 0.3% increase and slowing from April’s revised 0.9% gain. The modest increase reflected a mixed picture across the industrial sector, with manufacturing output flat during the month after a 0.7% rise in April, suggesting factory activity lost momentum following a stronger start to the spring. The overall increase was supported by a 1.3% rise in mining output, while utility production declined 0.4%. Industrial capacity utilization, a key measure of how fully companies are using their productive capacity, was unchanged at 76.2%, matching market expectations. The figures point to continued, but subdued, growth in U.S. industrial activity, with strength in the mining sector helping offset softer manufacturing performance. Relatedly,  manufacturing activity in New York State continued to expand in June, but at a significantly slower pace than expected. The Empire State Manufacturing Survey’s general business conditions index fell to 5.7 from 19.6 in May, well below economists’ forecasts of 13.9, indicating that growth in the sector moderated during the month. New orders remained positive, with the index easing to 3.5, signaling a slight increase in demand, while the shipments index stood at 8.6, pointing to modest growth in deliveries. Unfilled orders also increased, suggesting some ongoing pressure on production capacity.

 

Reuters

Wall Street Journal

Wall Street Journal

The White House has dropped a Biden-era investigation into Delta Air Lines’ handling of a worldwide computer meltdown in 2024. The CrowdStrike software outage disrupted the travel plans of 1.3m customers ​and cost the carrier $500m. A DOT spokesperson said that Delta “ensured passengers received prompt refunds and baggage assistance.” The department said it had determined that “enforcement was not warranted” based on the carrier’s efforts. Delta ​said it was grateful DOT recognized "the catastrophic circumstances we faced ​as an industry during the unprecedented outage and its dismissal of the investigation citing how we ‌cared ⁠for customers, which included millions of dollars in refunds, hotels, food and baggage assistance."

 

Politico

Reuters

Investor support for executive pay packages at the biggest U.S. companies has hit its highest since 2022, even as awards to corporate leaders continue to surge, according to ISS-Corporate data.

 

Financial Times

KPMG’s latest audit-leak scandal is expected to intensify scrutiny of Australia’s Big Four accounting firms and further erode their government business, with new federal contract awards to KPMG, PwC, Deloitte, and EY already having fallen sharply since PwC’s own confidentiality breach controversy in 2023. According to a Reuters analysis, new federal government contracts awarded to the Big Four declined to A$348m ($245.51m) in 2025 from A$637m the previous year. KPMG is currently facing allegations that confidential company information was shared to help secure audit work, prompting the resignation of its chief executive and top auditor, a government ban on bidding for new federal contracts until September 30th, and reviews of existing client relationships. The firm currently holds approximately A$650m in active federal contracts. Analysts and former government officials warned that, if the allegations against KPMG are substantiated, the firm could face a similar loss of government work. The latest developments have also renewed calls for stricter regulation of the accounting sector.

 

Reuters

Starbucks Korea will close all of its stores nationwide at 3 p.m. on June 22nd to allow employees to participate in mandatory history and social sensitivity training after a marketing campaign sparked accusations that it mocked victims of South Korea’s 1980 Gwangju pro-democracy uprising. The controversy centered on a promotion for “SS Tank” tumblers that branded May 18 as “Tank Day,” a date that coincides with the anniversary of the military crackdown in Gwangju, in which troops, tanks, and helicopters were deployed against protesters. The campaign also used a slogan that critics linked to the cover-up of the 1987 torture death of student activist Park Jong-chol. Starbucks Korea’s parent company, Shinsegae Group, canceled the promotion within hours, dismissed the chain’s chief executive, issued a public apology, and announced company-wide training aimed at preventing similar incidents in the future.

 

The Seattle Times

The Guardian