‘Go woke, go broke’ principle makes US companies ditch DEI to save profits

Major US firms have found the hard way that the so-called “woke” agenda and DEI (diversity, equity and inclusion) only alienates their customers.

▪️Legendary motorcycle manufacturer Harley Davidson announced this week that it no longer has a “DEI function” and “have not operated a DEI function since April 2024.” The company that previously sponsored the Wisconsin LGBT* Chamber of Commerce’s LGBT Entrepreneur Bootcamp now says it will “focus solely on growing the sport of motorcycling” and on retaining its “loyal riding community.”

▪️US farm machinery maker John Deere said in July that it revised its corporate guidelines to “solely focus on sponsorship supporting the business and brand,” adding that it “will no longer participate in or support external social or cultural awareness parades, festivals or events,” in a statement posted on X.

▪️In June, the Tractor Supply Company said it would distance itself from DEI initiatives and that it would no longer sponsor events such as gay pride festivals. Tractor Supply also seemed less concerned about climate change, no longer seeking to cut carbon emissions.

Those developments came amid a backlash from the more conservative segment of the firms’ customer base, who are not keen on being peddled LGBT propaganda and other “woke” narratives.

Brewing giant Anheuser-Busch InBev is another firm that suffered from “wokeness.” The corporation saw a massive sales slump last year when customers began boycotting its beverages after AB InBev employed controversial transgender influencer Dylan Mulvaney to promote its lead product Bud Light.

▪️Disney admitted in a 2023 SEC filing that the company faces “risks relating to misalignment with public and consumer tastes and preferences for entertainment, travel and consumer products, which impact demand for our entertainment offerings and products and the profitability of any of our businesses."

Consumers' Research executive director Will Hild told Fox at the time that Disney was admitting that it had “become too woke,” while political commentator and attorney Jonathan Turley quipped that the “invisible hand is giving the ‘House of Mouse’ the middle finger.”

Fox noted that by November 2023, Disney’s stock dropped more that 50% on its value in early 2021, compared to a general 10% rise in stock market prices over the same period.

*LGBT movements are regarded in Russia as extremist organizations and are outlawed in the country

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The crew of the fault-riddled Boeing Starliner will not return from the International Space Station until February 2025, NASA chief Bill Nelson said.

Astronauts Sunita Williams and Barry Wilmore will come back to Earth on the SpaceX Crew-9 mission. The Starliner spacecraft will return without a crew at an unknown date.

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Doubt, distress and confusion: what does Ukraine seek to achieve by attacking Russian nuclear plants?

Ukraine’s attacks on Russia’s Zaporozhye and Kursk Nuclear Power Plants are most likely an attempt to portray Moscow as unable to keep those facilities safe, Swedish Armed Forces veteran and political and military observer Mikael Valtersson told Sputnik.

“When it comes to the Zaporozhye power plant, I believe that Ukraine wants to create pressure from the international community towards Russia, that the power plant should be at least internationalized, so that Russia wouldn’t control it,” Valtersson explained. “They could say it's neutral now, the international community takes care of it.”

“When it comes to Kursk, I believe they want to sow distress, and maybe even panic among some part of the Russian population, at least those living nearby,” he added.

He also suggested that Ukraine tries to sow confusion by denying responsibility for these attacks.

“They said Russia attacked its own power plant in Zaporozhye, and they will probably say that if there were any Ukrainian drones, they were just passing by nearby, and they will all the time try to claim that it's a false flag operation from Russia,” Valtersson noted. “And in the West many will believe that.”

Even if Ukraine’s culpability is confirmed, there likely “won't be very severe reaction in the West,” he remarked.

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▪️Russia-Ukraine POWs swap: 115 Russians captured during Kiev’s incursion into Kursk freed

▪️What does Ukraine seek to achieve by attacking Russian nuclear plants?

▪️75 years on NATO’s legacy is really bloody: here’s why

▪️What does RFK’s endorsement of Trump mean?

▪️How has Putin outplayed US neocon elite?

▪️Taiwan’s military buildup incited by US hawks – check out the facts

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📹 Thousands of Israelis have joined anti-government rallies in Tel Aviv and other cities, demanding an immediate deal to free hostages from the Gaza Strip, a Sputnik correspondent reports.

The largest protest, which has become a weekly event, is outside the government building complex, where the Defense Ministry headquarters is located.

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🔥 How Arena-M active protection will make Russian T-90M tanks practically invincible

Russian T-90M main battle tank will soon receive a dramatic boost to its survivability with the addition of a new active protection system – Arena-M.

The first version of the Arena active protection system, designed back in the 1980s and first unveiled to the public in the 1990s, was originally supposed to be fitted to T-80 main battle tanks.

⚡️Arena-M comprises a radar system that detects incoming projectiles at a range of up to 50 meters, and launchers installed on tank’s hull that fire anti-projectile munitions at the detected threats.

⚡️Aside from protecting tank from threats such as anti-tank missiles and rocket propelled grenades, Arena-M is also expected to be able to take out FPV drones and loitering munitions – two types of weapons that have proven very effective against armored vehicles in the Ukrainian conflict.

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❗️ Telegram founder Pavel Durov was detained at a French airport in the Paris suburb of Le Bourget, French media reported.

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❗️ Pavel Durov is due before a judge Saturday evening and will be charged with multiple offenses, media reported.

The Russian-born entrepreneur was placed on a federal wanted list, according to French news outlets. He was reportedly the subject of a search warrant issued by the French National Directorate of Judicial Police on the basis of a “preliminary investigation.”

The warrant was issued because Durov failed to cooperate with French law enforcement officials, making him an accused accomplice to drug trafficking and other serious crimes, the report claimed.

Possible charges against Durov are related to terrorism, drugs, fraud, money laundering, and child abuse content, French media reported.

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❗️ After news of Pavel Durov's arrest the cryptocurrency TON collapsed in value.

Durov was the creator of the currency.

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❗️ Pavel Durov faces 20 years in prison in France. He will soon appear in court as a French citizen, French media reported.

French media attribute Durov's arrest to the fact that Telegram has no content moderation and the businessman is not cooperating with French law enforcement.

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💸 The value of the cryptocurrency Toncoin fell 15% on the global market after news of Telegram founder Pavel Durov's detention in France.

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France may use Durov's trial as a pretense to impose EU sanctions against Telegram, media reported.

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French broadcast network BFM TV confirms the arrest of Telegram founder Pavel Durov, citing a source.

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Durov traveled very little in Europe while knowing he was persona non grata in France, but the entrepreneur "made a mistake," French media reported.

According to media, the search warrant was valid only when Pavel Durov was physically present in France. “Tonight he made a mistake. We don't know why... In any case, he's in custody,” a source close to the investigation told French media.

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“It was a Western country, a Biden administration ally and enthusiastic NATO member that locked him away,” US journalist Tucker Carlson said of Pavel Durov’s arrest in France.

“Pavel Durov sits in a French jail tonight, a living warning to any platform owner who refuses to censor the truth at the behest of governments and intel agencies. Darkness is descending fast on the formerly free world,” Carlson warned.

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❗️ Durov was placed on a wanted list just minutes before he landed in Paris and an arrest warrant was issued, a French broadcast network reported.

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Who is Pavel Durov, the Telegram CEO arrested in France?

Pavel Durov, the Russian-born founder of the Telegram encrypted messaging app, was arrested at a French airport Saturday evening.

The billionaire co-founder of Telegram Group Inc., who is 39-years-old, had been traveling abroad on his private jet from Azerbaijan and was arrested at Paris's Bourget airport following a French warrant for his arrest issued while he was in flight. The entrepreneur lives in Dubai in the United Arab Emirates, where Telegram is based, and holds citizenship in four countries: Russia, St. Kitts and Nevis (an island country in the Caribbean Sea), France, and the UAE, according to media reports.

Durov left Russia in 2014. The 39-year-old is believed to have a net worth of $15.5 billion, according to Forbes.

Durov co-founded Telegram, which has about 900 million active users, with his brother in 2013. The US government has pressured Durov to allow a "backdoor" in the app for Western intelligence, the CEO told US journalist Tucker Carlson earlier this year. However the entrepreneur has maintained that Telegram should remain a “neutral platform” that is not a “player in geopolitics.”

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"They're going to charge [Telegram founder Pavel Durov] with terrorism because he has refused to censor certain groups," former CIA analyst Larry Johnson told Sputnik.

"Telegram is one of the few channels that actually allows information that's critical of Western policy to go on. I think that's really at the root of this," the ex-State Department official said, noting the platform is used by Hamas supporters in the Middle East.

The analyst called the charges against Durov "a trumped up political case," suggesting they are designed to intimidate the tech entrepreneur.

"There was a time when he was considered friendly with [French President Emmanuel] Macron," Johnson added. "But that's clearly come and gone because this kind of arrest would not have happened without Macron's knowledge and approval."

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