GOOD GAME: Female director mandate in UAE, Cards Against Humanity vs. Musk, and Amazon’s transpo problem

Live from the Vanguard Charity Cornhole Tournament, where the players toss ESG-filled bean bags at GHG emissions target gameboards, it’s an all-new terrific Tuesday edition of Business Pants. Joined by Analyst-Hole Matt Moscardi! On today’s kimchi-filled proxy contest called September 24th, 2024: The Good Game! And a Data Drop!

Our show today is being sponsored by Free Float Analytics, the only platform measuring board power, connections, and performance for FREE.

1. Women on corporate board of directors now mandatory, announces the UAE

1. one director by Jan 2025

1. They knew and they lied': California sues ExxonMobil, alleging deception about plastics recycling

1. In the lawsuit, the state's attorney general says ExxonMobil misled consumers into believing that recycling was a viable solution for plastic waste, though it knew otherwise.

1. Cards Against Humanity’s lawsuit against Elon Musk is a brilliant stunt that makes a serious point

1. Game makers sued SpaceX for $15 million for littering on land they’d bought in 2017 to stop Trump from building a border wall

1. Social media owners top global survey of misinformation concerns

1. “One of the most pressing concerns highlighted by our survey is the influence of social media platform owners. Their control over content distribution and moderation policies significantly impacts the quality and integrity of information. The unchecked power of these entities poses a grave risk to the health of our global information environment”

1. Wynn Resorts settles shareholder lawsuit over CEO misconduct cover-up for $70 million

1. Wynn Resorts will cover $9.4 million of the settlement, while insurers will pay the remaining amount

2. The fallout also led to Steve Wynn paying a $10 million settlement to Nevada regulators and his ban from holding any role in publicly traded companies under the state’s jurisdiction. Wynn Resorts’ subsequent leadership, led by Matthew Maddox, has worked to distance itself from its founder and ensure compliance with new corporate governance standards

1. (Craig S. Billings has served as the Company’s CEO since February 1, 2022)

1. Pinterest CEO: To protect our kids online, Congress must make digital IDs the national standard—and require OS makers to share age-validation data with apps

1. Bill Ready

1. Melinda French Gates rips into the praise for sleepless CEOs as ‘so dumb’

1. Vanguard’s Investor Choice Pilot Highlights Growing Investor Engagement in Proxy Voting

1. Policy Preferences:

1. 43% of investors chose Vanguard-advised policies

2. 30.3% supported company board-aligned policies

3. 24.4% opted for third-party ESG policies

4. 2.3% selected not to vote

1. Global share buybacks fell 35% in 2024

1. The aggregate value of 2024 share buyback transactions was $163.53 billion through Sept. 9, compared to $354.85 billion, a year ago

1. Tyson Foods Sued Over Emissions Reduction Promises

1. The Environmental Working Group alleges that the world’s second-largest meat producer is misleading consumers by labeling a line of its beef “climate smart.”

2. People in this Dutch city will never see a fossil fuel billboard again

1. Next year, if you walk down the street in The Hague, you’ll no longer see billboards advertising new cars—unless the car is electric. You also won’t see ads for flights, cruises, or anything else that runs on fossil fuels

2. The Dutch city is the first in the world to pass a ban on street ads for fossil fuels and the products that use them

1. Amazon raises pay to more than $22 an hour, gives free Prime to transportation workers

1. 23andMe independent directors quit board over unsatisfactory buyout plan from CEO

2. Jamie Dimon is still committed to DEI but says he’s not woke

1. Michael O’Leary says Ryanair’s value is depressed because he keeps calling people idiots

1. Speaking at Ryanair’s AGM on Thursday, the airline boss admitted his loose lips might be behind the company’s depressed share price, which has fallen by around 20% this year: “In Ryanair there’s always some news flow. We’re fighting some union or some minister or I’m calling some minister an idiot or they’re calling me an idiot.”