Shipping giant CEO says business have to avoid global politics
13 June 2021
The CEO of the world's largest container-shipping company cautions that international firms have to be careful of taking political stances.
- What they're saying: "We cannot run a global business if we start to have views on politics in every single country that we are in," Maersk CEO Søren Skou tells "Axios on HBO."
Why it matters: Wanting to avoid political entanglement stands in contrast to the pressure some companies are under from customers, employees or shareholders to take stances on topics like human rights or freedom of expression.
Asked about how his company approaches relationships with Russia and China, Skou said Maersk's commitment is just to employees.
- "What we try to do is to provide good jobs to the people that are employed by us, give them a good wage so that they can live a good life, pay for their training and development, and in general be a good corporate citizen in every single country that we're operating in."
Transcripts show George Floyd told police "I can't breathe" over 20 times
Section2Newly released transcripts of bodycam footage from the Minneapolis Police Department show that George Floyd told officers he could not breathe more than 20 times in the moments leading up to his death.
Why it matters: Floyd's killing sparked a national wave of Black Lives Matter protests and an ongoing reckoning over systemic racism in the United States. The transcripts "offer one the most thorough and dramatic accounts" before Floyd's death, The New York Times writes.
The state of play: The transcripts were released as former officer Thomas Lane seeks to have the charges that he aided in Floyd's death thrown out in court, per the Times. He is one of four officers who have been charged.
- The filings also include a 60-page transcript of an interview with Lane. He said he "felt maybe that something was going on" when asked if he believed that Floyd was having a medical emergency at the time.
What the transcripts say:
- Floyd told the officers he was claustrophobic as they tried to get him into the squad car.
- The transcripts also show Floyd saying, "Momma, I love you. Tell my kids I love them. I'm dead."
- Former officer Derek Chauvin, who had his knee on Floyd's neck for over eight minutes, told Floyd, "Then stop talking, stop yelling, it takes a heck of a lot of oxygen to talk."
Read the transcripts via DocumentCloud.