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Serena Williams’ hopes ended by injury; Roger Federer survives scare

LONDON — Seven-time champion Serena Williams’s hopes of claiming a record-equalling 24th Grand Slam singles title at Wimbledon ended in tears as the American quit with an injury early in her first-round match against unseeded Belarusian Aliaksandra Sasnovich.

The 39-year-old needed treatment off the court when leading 3-2 in the first set and was clearly in distress on her return before being forced to retire at 3-3.

Her misfortune added to an already-dramatic second day in which men’s eight-time winner Roger Federer looked set for his first opening-round exit at a Grand Slam since 2003 when he found himself outplayed by Frenchman Adrian Mannarino.

The Swiss trailed by two sets to one but Mannarino slipped on the greasy Centre Court turf and although he soldiered on to lose the fourth set he could not continue.

Men’s second seed Daniil Medvedev looked impressive as he came through a tricky opener against German powerhouse Jan-Lennard Struff, winning in four sets.

While many matches were canceled because of rain, the roofs on Centre Court and Court One did their job to ensure continuous action. Women’s top seed Ash Barty opened the day on Centre with a (6-1, 6-7(1), 6-1) victory over Carla Suarez Navarro who bade an emotional farewell to the tournament, having announced in April that she had recovered from cancer.

A long day concluded with her compatriot Nick Kyrgios locked in a late-night tussle with Frenchman Ugo Humbert on Court One.

The score was 3-3 in the fifth set when play was suspended just before 11 p.m. local time — the cutoff for play. — Reuters

Tokyo may extend coronavirus curbs into Olympics period

TOKYO 2020 FACEBOOK PAGE

TOKYO — Japan is considering an extension of its coronavirus prevention measures in Tokyo and other areas by two weeks to a month, Japanese media said, with less than a month to go until the Tokyo Summer Olympics are set to open.

The Japanese capital and other areas are currently under a “quasi” state of emergency set to be lifted on July 12, but a recent uptick in coronavirus cases has officials concerned and could affect the number of spectators allowed in to Olympics venues.

According to the Mainichi Shimbun daily, the government is considering extending the measures by two to four weeks, a period that would overlap with the Olympics, already delayed a year, that open on July 23.

A government meeting on coronavirus measures is set to be held later on Wednesday to discuss ways of dealing with signs of an impending surge in coronavirus numbers that has experts worried, along with concern about the spread of more highly transmissible variants.

“Any decisions regarding quasi-emergency measures will be taken based on policies we have in place,” chief cabinet secretary Katsunobu Katō told a news conference.

Under the “quasi” state of emergency, spectators at events are capped at 5,000. Olympics organizers have ruled that spectators will be allowed up to 50% of the venue capacity or a maximum of 10,000, though foreign spectators have been banned.

Meanwhile, Tokyo governor Yuriko Koike, who had been in hospital due to fatigue, was released early on Wednesday. Media reports said she would be working from home for an indefinite period.

Tokyo on Tuesday decided to move the first half of the 15-day Olympic torch relay scheduled to take place in the capital off public roads.

Officials have pledged to hold a “safe and secure” Olympic Games but face continuing resistance from a substantial part of the public, with worries fanned after two members of the Ugandan delegation tested positive after arriving in Japan. — Reuters

Philippine national volleyball team begins ‘bubble’ training

WORK begins for the Philippine national volleyball team in Laoag, Ilocos Norte, on Thursday.

“Training for the national teams officially starts on July 1 and we are very thankful that Ilocos Norte has agreed to adopt our national athletes who will be training in a bubble environment,” said Philippine National Volleyball Federation (PNVF) President Ramon Suzara.

The women’s and men’s teams are girding for two important regional tournaments, namely, the Asian Women’s Seniors Championship and the 31st Southeast Asian Games.

The Asian championship happens in Pampanga and Subic from Aug. 29 to Sept. 5 while the SEA Games takes place from Nov. 23 to Dec. 2 in Hanoi, Vietnam.

There are 56 national team members — 20 men and 16 women in volleyball and 10 men and 10 women in beach volleyball.

International tourism not seen rebounding until 2023 — UN report

PEOPLE have their picture taken next to El Oso y El Madrono (The Bear and the Strawberry Tree) statue, at Madrid’s landmark Puerta del Sol square, Spain, June 7. — REUTERS

GENEVA — International tourism arrivals are set to stagnate this year, except in some Western markets, causing up to $2.4 trillion in losses, a U.N. study said on Wednesday, adding the sector is not expected to rebound fully until 2023.

COVID-19 vaccination and certificates are key to restoring confidence in foreign tourism, which provides a lifeline for many countries, especially small island states that rely heavily on the sector to provide jobs, it said.

In 2020, international arrivals plunged by 73% from pre-pandemic levels in 2019, causing estimated losses of $2.4 trillion in tourism and related sectors, according to the report by UNCTAD and the UN’s World Tourism Organization (UNWTO).

“The outlook for this year doesn’t look much better,” Ralf Peters of UNCTAD’s trade analysis branch, told a news conference.

“The first three months were again bad, there was not much travelling happening,” he said.

“There is an expectation of a certain recovery in the second half of the year, at least for North America and Europe to a certain extent,” he told Reuters, crediting vaccinations.

The report sets out three scenarios for 2021, showing international tourism arrivals forecast to drop by between 63% and 75% from pre-pandemic levels, resulting in losses of between $1.7 trillion and $2.4 trillion.

“In international tourism we are at levels of 30 years ago, so basically we are in the ‘80s … Many livelihoods are really at threat,” said Zoritsa Urosevic, Geneva representative of the Madrid-based UNWTO.

“What we are looking at in the long run is…meeting the 2019 numbers after 2023,” she said.

Sandra Carvao, chief of market intelligence at UNWTO, said that it would be a “very diverse recovery,” varying by region and by country.

The European Union’s digital COVID-19 certificate, due to come into force on Thursday, represents the only regional harmonization to date, she said.

Ms. Carvao, referring to travel corridors, said: “We see for example Asia-Pacific is still one of the most closed regions in the world at this moment – most of the borders in the countries are either totally closed or with significant restrictions.” — Reuters

Moderna’s COVID shot produces antibodies against Delta variant

MODERNA, Inc. said its vaccine produced protective antibodies against the delta variant spreading in the US and many other parts of the world.

Moderna researchers tested blood samples from eight people for antibodies against versions of the spike protein from different coronavirus variants, including delta, which emerged in India. The vaccine “produced neutralizing titers against all variants tested,” the company said in a statement. The results were released on the pre-print server bioRxiv.

The protective proteins are called neutralizing antibodies because they’re capable of preventing the virus from entering cells. Compared to the quantity of antibodies produced against the main version of the virus, neutralizing antibody levels against the delta variant were reduced by 2.1-fold.

Shares of Moderna gained 5.9% at 10:24 a.m. in New York.

Antibody levels were reduced by 4.2-fold against the eta strain first found Nigeria, and by eight-fold against a new variant identified in Angola called A.VOI.V2.

The lab-based study did not directly measure vaccine effectiveness. Although reduced, the neutralizing antibody levels are still thought to be high enough to prevent disease, as the messenger RNA vaccine generates a strong immune reaction that creates a surplus of antibodies against the original strain.

“We remain committed to studying emerging variants, generating data and sharing it as it becomes available. These new data are encouraging and reinforce our belief that the Moderna Covid-19 vaccine should remain protective against newly detected variants,” Moderna CEO Stephane Bancel said in the statement.

Moderna earlier published research showing its vaccine produces neutralizing antibodies against the alpha, beta, and gamma variants that emerged in different regions. — Bloomberg

More smartphone-dependent Filipinos seek news on social media — Reuters report

By Patricia B. Mirasol 

The coronavirus pandemic has exacerbated the move to a more digital, mobile, and platform-dominated media environment, according to the Reuters Institute Digital News Report 2021. 

According to the same report, social media as a news source in the Philippines rose to 72% (up 4 percentage points), with TikTok becoming a destination for news among Filipinos (6%), joining Facebook (73%), YouTube (53%), Facebook Messenger (36%), and Twitter (19%). 

In the Philippines, “going digital makes sense,” said Yvonne T. Chua, a journalist and associate professor at the University of the Philippines College of Mass Communication. Ms. Chua cited We Are Social’s Digital 2021 report that said the Philippines spends the greatest amount of time online in the world (nearly 11 hours per day), particularly on social media (more than four hours). 

The report also identified the following trends in the Philippine media landscape: 

  • TV 

TV viewing in the Philippines slid to 61% by February this year, even as TV viewership increased globally due to stay-at-home directives. According to Ms. Chua, this decline may have been partly influenced by the closure of ABS-CBN’s free-to-air stations in 2020. 

Many other big television networks have taken to rebranding or reformatting programs to engage consumers. TV5 converted its primetime newscast Aksyon to Frontline Pilipinas and fielded more anchors. This February, GMA Network rebranded GMA News TV, its second free-to-air channel, as Good TV, adding more sports, entertainment, and lifestyle programs to its existing news and current affairs programs. GMA has also earmarked more than P20 billion for capital expenditure and content creation, part of which will go to digital TV expansion. 

  • Print 

The coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic curtailed local newspaper distribution, hitting the industry hard. The Philippine Daily Inquirer, one of the country’s biggest dailies, offered early retirement to employees, let go of several columnists, shut down its Metro section, and shrank the number of its pages. It also closed its free paper, Inquirer Libre, and started publishing its tabloid Bandera purely online.  

At least 12 community newspapers, including the Visayan Daily Star, have moreover either closed down or scaled back operations due to the pandemic, according to a Philippine Press Institute tally. This leaves the public they serve with information gaps, said Philstar.com editor-in-chief Camille Diola and ABS-CBN deputy editor Tarra V. Quismundo, as national media tends to cover communities only when disaster strikes. 

  • Tiktok 

TikTok, a short-form video-sharing app, has been harnessed by organizations and politicians alike to reach the under-25 demographic. Among the Filipino politicians using TikTok are Cabinet Secretary Karlo B. Nograles and Presidential Spokesperson Herminio L. Roque, Jr.  

Acknowledging TikTok’s reach, Philippine Commission on Elections (Comelec) spokesperson James B. Jimenez said in a tweet that he hoped Filipinos would also use TikTok for civic campaigns such as encouraging young people to vote. 

  • Podcasts 

Another platform with growth potential is podcasting. The survey found that, despite the overall slight drop in podcast listenership from a year ago (a decrease in 3 percentage points to 54%), podcasting remains especially popular with younger users. A 2020 Spotify survey on millennials and Gen Zs bears this out, with 61% of the respondents saying audio offers “a nice escape” from “too much visual stimulation” nowadays. The audio-streaming platform has since signed up 16 Filipino podcasts exclusively.  

GLOBAL FINDINGS
Among the report’s key global findings are as follows: 

  • Trust in the news has grown by six percentage points in the wake of the coronavirus pandemic, with 44% of the report’s total sample saying they trust most news most of the time. Finland and the US have the highest and lowest levels of overall trust (65% vs. 29%), respectively.  
  • The trust gap between the news in general and that found in aggregated environments has grown, with audiences seemingly placing a greater premium on accurate and reliable news sources.  
  • In countries with strong and independent public service media, the Reuters report saw greater consumption of trusted news brands. The report, however, also found signs that some are turning away from the news media and even avoiding news altogether.  
  • A majority of the respondents (74%) say they still prefer news that reflects a range of views and lets them decide what to think. Most also think that news outlets should try to be neutral on every issue (66%), although some younger groups think impartiality may not be appropriate or desirable in some cases, such as in social justice issues.  
  • The use of social media for news remains strong, especially with younger people and those with lower levels of education. Messaging apps like WhatsApp and Telegram have become especially popular in parts of the Global South such as Brazil and Indonesia, creating the most concern when it comes to spreading misinformation about COVID-19.  
  • Global concerns about false and misleading information have edged slightly higher this year, ranging from 75% in Kenya to just 37% in Germany. Social media users are more likely to say they have been exposed to CVOID-19 misinformation than non-users.  

“This year’s survey finds evidence that some brands have benefited from a desire for reliable information around the pandemic — both in terms of higher reach, higher trust, and more paying subscribers,” said Rasmus Kleis Nielsen, director of the Reuters Institute for the Study of Journalism (RISJ), in the report’s foreword. “While the effects are uneven, do not apply to all brands or all countries, and may not last after the crisis is over, these are positive findings from publishers’ point of view.” 

The 2021 study, now on its 10th edition, was commissioned by the RISJ to understand how news is consumed in different countries. Research was conducted by market research firm YouGov and their partners, using an online questionnaire at the end of January through the beginning of February 2021. Samples were assembled using nationally representative quotas for age, gender, region in every market, and education in all markets except Bulgaria, Croatia, Greece, India, Indonesia, Kenya, Malaysia, Mexico, Nigeria, Philippines, Romania, South Africa, Thailand, and Turkey. In the US, UK, Denmark, Sweden, Norway, and Italy, the news agency applied additional political quotas based on vote choice in the most recent national election. 

Asia startups face tougher IPO market 

ASIA’S stock listing aspirants will likely face a less generous market following a first-half sales boom, as bubbly valuations and nervousness about US monetary policy make investors more cautious. 

Firms in Asia have raised $82 billion through initial public offerings (IPOs) so far this year, the most ever for a first half, and beating the previous record of $63 billion seen during a comparable period in 2010, data compiled by Bloomberg show. The performance is part of a global trend, with new listings having hit a record of almost $351 billion since 2021 began, as ultra-low interest rates and ample liquidity pushed yield-hungry investors into riskier assets. 

With bankers in Asia still staring at a busy deals pipeline for the second half, they may find it hard to repeat the success seen earlier in the year. That’s due to growing concerns that rising inflation will prompt the US and other major central banks to unwind some of the stimulus that laid the foundation for the remarkable global stock rally in the past year. 

“Going forward, people will tend to be a little bit more conservative,” said Selina Cheung, co-head of equity capital markets, Asia at UBS Group AG. “In the earlier part of this year, people were quite focused on just high growth. There are a lot of investors who find the valuations for tech stocks relatively rich now.” 

Tech stocks were at the forefront of Asia’s IPO boom earlier this year, led by TikTok ,Inc.’s Chinese rival Kuaishou Technology that pulled off the world’s biggest share sale of 2021 in February. 

But the tide started turning in March, when worries about tighter US monetary policy triggered a selloff in growth stocks from tech to healthcare. The ripple effects were felt in the IPO market, where prospective issuers were forced to lower targeted valuations amid rising trading volatility. 

Still, the shifting investment climate hasn’t stopped some of Asia’s hottest firms in South Korea to India from lining up to go public. 

An active source of the region’s IPO supply, South Korea is poised for a record year with mobile game developer Krafton, Inc. and internet-only lender Kakao Bank looking to raise more than $7 billion between them. 

Chinese companies’ presence in the listings pipeline remains dominant even as Beijing’s clampdown on some of the nation’s tech behemoths has chilled sentiment. Deals in the making include a likely $1- billion IPO from the music streaming arm of gaming giant NetEase, Inc. and a similar offering from Huitongda Network Co., an e-commerce platform serving China’s rural areas. 

One closely watched deal is taking place Wednesday, when Chinese electric-vehicle maker Xpeng, Inc. is set to raise $1.8 billion in a dual listing in Hong Kong, adding to the flow of US-traded Chinese firms selling shares in the city. 

Inflation will be key to the market’s outlook, said UBS’ Ms. Cheung, also noting that the policy-driven issues that have been clouding China’s market may remain present. 

Others are more sanguine. 

“Demand is still going to be there for the rest of the year due primarily to the macroeconomic conditions, with liquidity likely to remain supported by monetary and fiscal policy,” said Francesco Lavatelli, head of equity capital markets for Asia-Pacific at JPMorgan Chase & Co. — Bloomberg

China’s Didi raises $4.4 bln in upsized US IPO — sources

Image via Didi Global

Chinese ride hailing company Didi Global Inc. raised $4.4 billion in its US initial public offering (IPO) on Tuesday, pricing it at the top of its indicated range and increasing the number of shares sold, according to two sources familiar with the matter. 

Didi sold 317 million American Depository Shares (ADS), versus the planned 288 million, at $14 apiece, the people said on condition of anonymity ahead of an official announcement. 

This would give Didi a valuation of about $73 billion on a fully diluted basis and $67.5 billion on a non-diluted basis. 

The decision to increase the deal size came after the Didi investor order book was oversubscribed multiple times, one of the sources said. The company is expected to debut on the New York Stock Exchange on June 30. 

Didi did not respond to a request for comment. 

Didi’s IPO is more conservative versus its initial aim for a valuation of up to $100 billion, Reuters has previously reported. The size of the deal was cut during briefings with investors ahead of the IPO’s launch. 

Investors balked at the $100 billion target given concerns the company’s future growth prospects could be curbed by the chance of greater regulation of the ride-sharing sector by transport authorities in the future. 

There was also uncertainty over how an antitrust probe into Didi, revealed by Reuters this month, would impact the business. Didi said at the time it would not comment on “unsubstantiated speculation from unnamed source(s).” 

The listing, which will be the biggest US share sale by a Chinese company since Alibaba raised $25 billion in 2014, comes amid record and volatile IPO activity this year as firms rush to capture the lucrative valuations seen in the US stock market. 

“The volatile IPO environment helped to lower (Didi) IPO price and valuation looks attractive,” said Douglas Kim, a London-based independent analyst, who writes on Smartkarma. 

Didi’s IPO was covered early on the first day of the book-build last week and the investor books were closed on Monday, a day ahead of schedule. 

An over-allotment option, or greenshoe, exists where another 43.2 million shares can be sold to increase the deal size. 

DIDI HISTORY
Didi was co-founded in 2012 by former Alibaba employee Will Wei Cheng, who currently serves as the chief executive officer. Cheng was joined by Jean Qing Liu, a former Goldman Sachs banker and the current president of the ride-sharing company. 

The company counts SoftBank, Uber Technologies Inc and Tencent as its main backers. 

Didi is also known for successfully pushing Uber out of the Chinese market after the US company lost a price war and ended up selling its China operations to Didi for a stake. Liu Zhen, the head of Uber China at the time, is Didi’s Liu’s cousin. 

Didi is the dominant player in China, although ride-hailing services by automakers such as Geely and SAIC Motor are picking up market share. In Europe and South America, where Didi is expanding, Uber has a presence. 

Like most ride-hailing companies, Didi had historically been unprofitable, until it reported a profit of $30 million in the first quarter of this year. 

The company reported a loss of $1.6 billion last year and an 8% drop in revenue to $21.63 billion, according to a regulatory filing, as business slid during the pandemic. 

Its shares are due to start trading under the “DIDI” symbol. — Echo Wang, Anirban Sen and Scott Murdoch/Reuters 

North Korea’s Kim chides officials for unspecified pandemic lapse

North Korean leader Kim Jong Un attends a ceremony in Pyongyang, North Korea, in this photo released March 24, 2021 by North Korea’s Korean Central News Agency (KCNA). — KCNA VIA REUTERS

SEOUL — North Korean leader Kim Jong Un chastised top ruling party officials for failures in anti-epidemic work that led to an unspecified “great crisis” and put the safety of the country and people at risk, state media reported on Wednesday. 

The report by state news agency KCNA did not elaborate on what happened, or how it put people at risk. 

North Korea has not officially confirmed any coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) cases, a claim questioned by South Korean and US officials. But the reclusive country has imposed strict anti-virus measures, including border closures and domestic travel curbs. 

Mr. Kim called a meeting of the Workers’ Party of Korea politburo to address some party executives’ neglect of duty, including failing to implement important long-term measures to fight the pandemic, KCNA said. 

“He mentioned that senior officials in charge of important state affairs neglected the implementation of the important decisions of the Party … and thus caused a crucial case of creating a great crisis in ensuring the security of the state and safety of the people and entailed grave consequences,” the report said. 

Several politburo members, secretaries of the central committee, and officials of several state agencies were replaced at the meeting, though KCNA did not specify if the shakeups were related to the neglect of pandemic-related duty. 

North Korea has treated the protection of its people from the coronavirus as a matter of national survival and anti-pandemic decisions are made by some of its most senior leaders, said Harvard Medical School’s Kee B. Park, who has worked on health care projects in North Korea. “The main objective of North Korea’s strategy is to prevent the virus from even getting into the country while simultaneously strengthening its treatment capabilities as well as acquiring vaccines,” he said. 

North Korea’s all-of-government, comprehensive approach and the repeated holding of large-scale public gatherings suggest that the country may have prevented any major outbreak, Mr. Park said. 

“However, the success comes with steep cost to its economy and increased vulnerability for the poorest of the population,” he added. 

Last year, North Korea said it had declared a state of emergency and locked down the border city of Kaesong after a person who defected to South Korea three years ago returned across the fortified border with what state media said were symptoms of COVID-19. 

The World Health Organization later said North Korea’s coronavirus test results for the man were inconclusive. — Josh Smith/Reuters 

Hong Kong security law is ‘a human rights emergency’ — Amnesty International

Image via Comma Papana BS200/CC BY-SA 4.0/Wikimedia Commons

HONG KONG — Hong Kong authorities have used a new national security law to target dissent and justify “censorship, harassment, arrests and prosecutions that violate human rights,” Amnesty International said on Wednesday, a year after the law was implemented. 

Beijing imposed a sweeping national security law in June last year that sets out punishment for anything it deems as subversion, secession, colluding with foreign forces and terrorism with up to life in prison, setting the city on a more authoritarian path. 

Authorities have said the law would affect an “extremely small minority” of people and that it had restored stability after months of often-violent protests in 2019. They have said rights and freedoms in the former British colony remain protected but they are not absolute. 

Most high-profile democratic politicians and activists have been arrested under the new law or for protest-related charges, or are in self-exile. 

“In one year, the National Security Law has put Hong Kong on a rapid path to becoming a police state and created a human rights emergency for the people living there,” said Amnesty International’s Asia-Pacific Regional Director Yamini Mishra. 

“Ultimately, this sweeping and repressive legislation threatens to make the city a human rights wasteland increasingly resembling mainland China.” 

The Hong Kong government did not immediately respond to requests for comment. 

Authorities have said all arrests have been lawful and no one was above the law, regardless of their occupation. 

In its 47-page report, the international human rights group cited analysis of court judgements, court hearing notes and interviews with activists, concluding the legislation has been used “to carry out a wide range of human rights violations.” 

Hong Kong returned to Chinese rule in 1997 with the promise of a high degree of autonomy from Beijing and that wide-ranging rights and freedoms would be protected for at least 50 years. 

Ms. Mishra said the law “has infected every part of Hong Kong society and fomented a climate of fear that forces residents to think twice about what they say, what they tweet and how they live their lives.” 

More than 100 people were arrested and more than 60 charged in the first year under the security law, according to a tally by Reuters. 

“Hong Kong’s NSL has been used as a false pretext to curb dissent,” the rights group said, referring to the security law. — Reuters

COVID fraud set to cost UK taxpayers tens of billions pounds — report

Images Money/CC BY 2.0/Flickr

LONDON — Fraud and error from a loan scheme to help businesses cope with the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic could cost the British taxpayer up to 27 billion pounds ($37 billion), on top of some 50 billion pounds a year lost to criminals and mistakes, a report said on Wednesday. 

The Bounce Back Loan Scheme was launched in May last year to allow banks to quickly lend businesses up to 50,000 pounds with 100% state guarantee to help them cope with losses during national lockdowns. 

But, the government’s business department (BEIS) estimates that between 35–60% of loans may not be repaid because of fraud or credit issues, amounting to up to 27 billion pounds, parliament’s Public Accounts Committee (PAC) said in a report. 

Meanwhile, fraud and error in the Universal Credit welfare payment system rose by 3.8 billion pounds to a record high of 5.5 billion pounds between April last year and March 2021. 

The PAC said the COVID-19 losses came on top of government estimates of an annual cost of fraud and error of up to 51.8 billion pounds a year. 

“The government knows it is losing over 26 billion pounds a year to fraud and error in the tax and benefits systems, but admits to another 25 billion pounds it can’t even detect,” Meg Hillier, the committee chair said. 

“That’s over 50 billion pounds worth of public services a year given away to fraudsters and by mistakes in payments — before the frightening losses racking up in our COVID-19 spending so far, and against the backdrop of a massive surge in need.” 

The government said their priority during the pandemic had been to act fast to help businesses and workers, and that the Bounce Back Loan Scheme had been designed to minimize fraud and thousands of false claims had been rejected. 

“We won’t tolerate those who seek to defraud taxpayers and will take action against perpetrators, including through criminal prosecution,” a spokesperson said. — Reuters 

Top fashion brands found failing on gender equality in new index 

UNSPLASH

LONDON – Adidas and Gap Inc are among the best performing fashion brands at tackling gender inequality, according to a new index which found that most retailers are failing to support women in their boardrooms and factories. 
 
The World Benchmarking Alliance (WBA)’s Gender Benchmark showed that nearly two-thirds of the top 35 apparel brands have not publicly backed gender equality and women’s empowerment, while only 14 firms have implemented gender-specific policies. 
 
The index – which examined factors such as the gender pay gap, representation in leadership, and policies to stop violence and harassment – gave the companies an average score of 29 points out of a possible 100, which the WBA called “concerning”. 
  
Adidas, Gap and VF Corp – known for brands from The North Face and Timberland to Vans – were the only three fashion industry giants to score more than 50 points on the WBA’s index. 
 
“We see a marked difference between what companies say and do on vital issues such as pay, gender balance in leadership and violence and harassment,” said Pauliina Murphy, engagement director at the WBA, a global non-profit organization.
  
“This lip service has to stop,” she said in a statement. 
   
The garment industry is estimated to employ more than 60 million workers globally – mostly women – and regularly comes under scrutiny over labor exploitation and sexual harassment. 
 
Activists have said that pressure from brands on suppliers to deliver clothes quickly and cheaply is fueling exploitation – from a lack of bathroom breaks to verbal and sexual abuse – in a trend that has been exacerbated by the coronavirus pandemic.

The WBA said its research – based on public information and confidential data from companies – revealed “significant gaps” between commitment and action on gender equality in fashion. 
 
Less than a third of the 35 companies had provided violence and harassment training to their staff, while only three brands had taken measures to address gender pay gaps, the WBA found. 
 
Dominique Muller, policy director at campaign group Labour Behind the Label, said the index’s findings were unsurprising as brands had repeatedly failed to address gender discrimination and violence in their supply chains. 
 
“Progress has stalled and the pandemic has laid bare the weakness of voluntary and ineffective promises of the fashion brands,” Muller told the Thomson Reuters Foundation by email. 

The lowest scoring companies on the index included Urban Outfitters , The Foschini Group (TFG) – owner of G-Star Raw – and Zhejiang Semir Garment, a Chinese clothing giant. The retailers were not immediately available to comment. — Thomson Reuters Foundation 

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