FCC to open probe into NBC-parent Comcast over promotion of DEI programs
"The FCC will be taking fresh action to ensure that every entity the FCC regulates complies with the civil rights protections enshrined in the Communications Act... including by shutting down any programs that promote invidious forms of DEI
discrimination," the letter to Comcast CEO Brian Roberts.
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Reuters
13 minutes ago
- Reuters
Peru seizes 4 tons of black market mercury bound for illegal gold mines
LIMA, July 24 (Reuters) - Peruvian authorities have halted a shipment of about four metric tons of mercury headed to Bolivia for presumed use in illegal gold mining, they said on Thursday, the latest sign of rising black market activity to fulfill soaring demand for the precious metal. The mercury had been passed off as a container of crushed rock, but Peru's customs agency SUNAT said an analysis revealed that the material had been laced with mercury, a toxic metal that is subject to strict environmental controls. "We could determine that mercury was being transported in its natural state, camouflaged in shipments of gravel," SUNAT said in a statement. The cargo was detected at the Callao port and came from Mexico, it added. The seizure appears to be the largest on record in the Amazon region of South America where illegal gold mining is widespread, according to a review of past seizures by the Environmental Investigation Agency (EIA), a Washington-based advocacy nonprofit. Until now, the biggest known shipment in the region, about a decade ago, was only half the size, according to the EIA. The latest discovery comes as gold prices have soared in recent months, as global trade uncertainty has made gold particularly attractive for investors. Gold prices are up 28.5% so far this year and hit a record high of $3,500 per troy ounce in April. The frenzy for gold has led to deadly encounters from West Africa to Peru. The EIA said it alerted Peruvian authorities to the shipment during its research into illicit mercury shipments from Mexico to Bolivia, Colombia and Peru, where miners use mercury to leach gold from sediment of the Amazon riverbanks. It said higher mercury prices were driving illegal mercury production in Mexico, with a particular spike since the start of this year as traffickers paid a record $330 per kilogram. "According to traffickers, gold miners' demand for mercury has driven the sophisticated operation and made it profitable," the EIA said in a report released on Thursday. It said its investigation showed that 200 tons of mercury were smuggled from Mexico to Bolivia, Colombia and Peru between April 2019 and June 2025, accounting for a conservative estimate of $8 billion in illegal gold. Peruvian officials did not address the role of the EIA in the discovery of the mercury-laced gravel from Mexico.
Reuters
15 minutes ago
- Reuters
BCG says some of its staff circumvented its controls in Gaza work
LONDON, July 24 (Reuters) - An investigation commissioned by Boston Consulting Group has found that some of its U.S.-based staff sidestepped its risk controls to do work related to the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation and to "post-war reconstruction" for the Palestinian enclave, the consulting firm said. In a response, opens new tab to a British parliamentary committee inquiry published on Thursday, BCG detailed the role some of its staff played in establishing GHF during late 2024 and early this year, and then the efforts made by one of its managing directors to carry out further work in March. GHF is a U.S.- and Israeli-backed organisation that began delivering humanitarian supplies to Palestinian civilians in Gaza in May, bypassing traditional aid channels including the United Nations. Its operations have been beset by violence and chaos including deadly shootings of scores of Palestinians near its food distribution sites guarded by Israeli forces, Reuters has reported. The U.N. and other humanitarian groups have refused to work with GHF, questioning its neutrality and criticising the new distribution model as militarising aid and forcing displacement of Palestinians. "We deeply regret that, in connection with the work about which the committee has asked, we did not live up to our standards," BCG said in its July 22-dated response to the parliamentary committee inquiry. BCG's role in the setting up of GHF dragged the firm into controversy and raises questions over its internal risk processes and controls. Its decision not to publish the full investigation could lead to further questions about the level of that involvement. A "largely complete" review led by law firm WilmerHale had shown that "BCG's approval processes were circumvented" by now-former BCG staff, the Boston-based management consulting firm said, in relation to work carried out earlier this year. BCG said it "will not publish the findings of this investigation" by WilmerHale. BCG said a team led by two U.S.-based and now former employees "provided pro bono support" to establish GHF between October last year and January, including its subsidiary in Switzerland, and that such work was directed by a U.S.-based security contractor, Orbis Operations. BCG said the information provided by its staff related to the establishment of the foundation was "incomplete, inaccurate and/or untruthful". Later in March, a BCG employee started "a second, for-fee, project related to the operational and logistical effort to deliver aid", and entered into a contract with U.S.-based private equity firm, McNally Capital. BCG said it cancelled the invoice for this project "as soon as we understood more about the scope and nature of the work." Representatives for Orbis Operations and McNally Capital did not immediately reply to requests for comment. Despite being told by BCG's risk officer not to engage in such a project, the same employee started a team to model "post-war reconstruction" scenarios, BCG said in its letter. He did not enter into a contract with any counterparty for this work, BCG said. "This unapproved work was shared and discussed on Signal" and "those communications were not maintained," the consulting firm said. BCG added that "the only UK-based organisation with which we understand the team interacted during this work was the Tony Blair Institute," referring to post-war scenario planning for Gaza. The Financial Times reported on July 4 that BCG had modelled the costs of "relocating" Palestinians from Gaza and that the Tony Blair Institute participated in a project to develop a post-war Gaza plan, opens new tab. A Tony Blair Institute representative said the firm "has had many calls with different groups on post-war reconstruction of Gaza but none have included the idea of forcible relocation of people from Gaza."
Reuters
16 minutes ago
- Reuters
US mulls limited authorizations for oil firms in Venezuela, sources say
HOUSTON/WASHINGTON, July 24 (Reuters) - U.S. President Donald Trump's administration is preparing to grant new authorizations to key partners of Venezuela's state-run oil company PDVSA, starting with Chevron (CVX.N), opens new tab, which would allow them to operate with limitations in the sanctioned OPEC nation, four sources close to the matter said on Thursday. If granted, the authorizations to the U.S. oil major, and possibly also to PDVSA's European partners, would mark a policy shift from a pressure strategy Washington adopted earlier this year on Venezuela's energy industry, which has been under U.S. sanctions since 2019. A senior State Department official said in a statement they could not speak about any specific licenses to PDVSA's partners, but added the U.S. would not allow President Nicolas Maduro's government to profit from the sale of oil. The U.S. might now allow the energy companies to pay oilfield contractors and make necessary imports to secure operational continuity, two of the sources said. "Chevron conducts its business globally in compliance with laws and regulations applicable to its business, as well as the sanctions frameworks provided for by the U.S. government, including in Venezuela," a company spokesperson said. Though Venezuela and the U.S. conducted a prisoner swap this month, relations between the two countries have been tense for years, and the Trump administration has publicly supported opposition leaders who say their candidate won last year's election, not Maduro. Trump in February announced the cancellation of a handful of energy licenses in Venezuela, including Chevron's, and gave until late May to wind down all transactions. The U.S. State Department, which in May blocked a move by special presidential envoy Richard Grenell to extend the licenses, is this time imposing conditions to any authorization modifications, so no cash reaches Maduro's coffers, the two sources added. But Secretary of State Marco Rubio could still decide to ban the move at the last minute or modify the scope of the new authorizations. It was not immediately clear if the terms of the license that could be granted to Chevron would be reproduced for other foreign companies in Venezuela, including Italy's Eni ( opens new tab and Spain Repsol ( opens new tab, which have been asking the U.S. to allow them to swap fuel supplies for Venezuelan oil. The U.S. Treasury Department's Office of Foreign Assets Control did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
