Author: sHq_LoGiNz

Five days of community engagement unites over
2,200
 volunteers and community members

NBA stars join forces to spread compassion through basketball

MACAO, Oct. 14, 2025 /PRNewswire/ — The final showdown of The NBA China Games 2025 took the court Sunday at The Venetian Arena. Alongside the games, the “NBA Cares x Sands Cares Community Impact Week” wrapped up a fun and meaningful week of community outreach events. Running Oct. 8-12, the five-day initiative built on the excitement of the major international sports event to bring together diverse local communities in Macao. More than 2,200 volunteers and community members participated, including the Sands Cares Ambassadors.

Jointly organised by NBA Cares and Sands Cares, the community impact week fostered compassion and interaction through a series of inclusive and engaging activities. These included a basketball exchange at a local school, distributing boxed lunches in the community, a community basketball carnival, and the “Her Time to Play” clinic. NBA Legends such as Mitch Richmond, Tim Hardaway, Yao Ming, Shawn Marion, and Deron Williams, alongside current players from the Phoenix Suns and Brooklyn Nets, used basketball as a bridge to extend NBA Cares’ community spirit to Macao, creating a positive impact across the city.

Patrick Dumont, president and chief operating officer of Las Vegas Sands Corp., said: “As far back as the opening of Sands Macao in 2004, our company has placed service to the Macao community among our top priorities. Over the course of two decades now, our dedicated team member volunteers have given their time and energy to make a meaningful difference in this community.

“NBA Cares and Sands Cares have been outstanding partners for this five-day community impact initiative during The NBA China Games 2025. We are excited to see the positive effect in the community, especially on local youth, children, and those in need. We appreciate all who participated and gave their support.”

Dr. Wilfred Wong, executive vice chairman of Sands China Ltd., said: “We are thrilled to have partnered with NBA Cares to bring the community impact week to life. Not only did we invite NBA Legends and players to engage directly with the Macao community, sharing skills with local students and with rural coaches and students from Guizhou and Inner Mongolia, but we also distributed boxed lunches to the underprivileged and connected closely with members of social service organisations. These activities and more fully demonstrated the powerful impact that sports-driven philanthropy can have on our community.

“We extend heartfelt thanks to NBA Cares for their strong support, the passionate participation of NBA Legends and players, the enthusiastic cooperation of local service organisations and schools, and the wholehearted involvement of students and teachers from Macao and those who travelled from the Chinese Mainland. We also express deep gratitude to our Sands Cares Ambassadors and other volunteers for their selfless contributions. The collective efforts of all who were involved made this week more impactful and meaningful. Looking ahead, Sands China will continue to make use of its resources to give back to the Macao community, taking concrete actions to care for society and help more people feel the warmth of community support.”

Events of the “NBA Cares x Sands Cares Community Impact Week”

The community impact week kicked off Oct. 8 with a youth basketball exchange, where NBA Legend Mitch Richmond and NBA coaches provided basketball training and mentorship to 200 students from Lou Hau High School, together with 12 coaches and students from NBA Cares’ “Her Time to Play” initiative who travelled to Macao from rural Guizhou and Inner Mongolia. Richmond and Dr. Wong donated basketballs and training equipment to the school on behalf of NBA and Sands China, supporting the continued development of its basketball programme. The event concluded with an exciting five-on-five skills challenge.

An official tip-off event on Oct. 9 at The Venetian Arena was attended by Adam Silver, NBA commissioner; Yao Ming, Naismith Memorial Hall of Famer and chairman of the Yao Foundation; Patrick Dumont, president and chief operating officer of Las Vegas Sands Corp.; Dr. Wong; Grant Chum, chief executive officer and executive director of Sands China Ltd.; and Dave Sun, executive vice president and chief financial officer of Sands China Ltd. and managing director of Venetian Macau Limited. Phoenix Suns and Brooklyn Nets players led a basketball clinic for over 60 participants, including students from Lou Hau High School, Sheng Kung Hui Choi Kou School (Macau), and Yuet Wah College Macau, and the “Her Time to Play” coaches and students. Together with Sands Cares Ambassadors, they packed goodie bags and health kits to distribute in the local community.

The third event – a boxed lunch distribution initiative – on Oct. 10 featured NBA Legend Tim Hardaway, Grant Chum, the “Her Time to Play” coaches, volunteers from the Yao Foundation, and Sands Cares Ambassadors. They visited the Fuhong Society of Macau’s Pou Choi Centre, where they distributed boxed lunches and health kits to 200 local residents in need – sending warmth and compassion to the community.

The community basketball carnival took place Oct. 11 in the NBA House at The Venetian^® Macao, welcoming 120 family members of local social service organisations to enjoy interactive sports-themed games and exciting performances. NBA Legend Shawn Marion shared some basketball fun with participants and Sands Global Ambassador David Beckham came to support the event. Other attending guests included: Patrick Dumont; Ron Reese, senior vice president of global communications and corporate affairs of Las Vegas Sands Corp.; Zachary Hudson, executive vice president and global general counsel of Las Vegas Sands Corp.; Dr. Wong; and Dave Sun.

The finale event on Oct. 12 was the “Her Time to Play” basketball clinic at the NBA House, featuring NBA Legend Deron Williams and current WNBA player Myisha Hines-Allen. They shared their training tips and experience with girls’ basketball team members from Pui Ching Middle School Macau and Keng Peng School, and with the “Her Time to Play” students and coaches, encouraging them to pursue their dreams. The event culminated in an exciting five-on-five friendly skills challenge, marking a perfect conclusion to the community impact week.

Joining the aforementioned guests, other guests throughout community impact week included: Mark Tatum, deputy commissioner and chief operating officer of the NBA; Kathy Behrens, president of social responsibility and player programs for the NBA; Andre Iguodala, NBA Legend and executive director of the National Basketball Players Association (NBPA); Micheal Ma, CEO of NBA Asia Pacific; and Wayne Chang, managing director of NBA Asia.

More than 300 volunteers, including Sands Cares Ambassadors, served the attendees of community impact week. In recognition of their selfless dedication, Sands China will present each volunteer with a certificate of appreciation.

Sands China established the Sands Cares Ambassador Programme in 2009, providing an organised platform for team members to continue serving the community. During the programme’s 15th anniversary last year, Sands China called on all sectors of society to answer the call to “#BeMyVolunteer” and join the company’s effort to encourage more people to volunteer with Macao’s social service organisations.

Sands China carries out its community initiatives, like the impact week and the Sands Cares Ambassador Programme, under the Sands Cares global corporate citizenship programme. With Sands China being an important stakeholder in the local community, the Sands Cares is an influential tool to carry out the company’s unwavering commitment to contribute to society, serving as an important connection between Sands China and local residents.

About Sands China Ltd.

Sands China Ltd. (Sands China or the Company) is incorporated in the Cayman Islands with limited liability and is listed on The Stock Exchange of Hong Kong Limited (HKEx: 1928). Sands China is the largest operator of integrated resorts in Macao. The Company’s integrated resorts on the Cotai Strip comprise The Venetian^® Macao, The Plaza^® Macao, The Parisian^® Macao and The Londoner Macao^®. The Company also owns and operates Sands^® Macao on the Macao peninsula. The Company’s portfolio features a diversified mix of leisure and business attractions and transportation operations, including large meeting and convention facilities; a wide range of restaurants; shopping malls; world-class entertainment at The Venetian Arena, The Londoner Arena, The Venetian Theatre, The Parisian Theatre, the Londoner Theatre and the Sands Theatre; and a high-speed Cotai Water Jet ferry service between Hong Kong and Macao. The Company’s Cotai Strip portfolio has the goal of contributing to Macao’s transformation into a world centre of tourism and leisure. Sands China is a subsidiary of global resort developer Las Vegas Sands Corp. (NYSE: LVS).

For more information, please visit www.sandschina.com.

About Sands Cares

A firm believer in the importance of corporate social responsibility, Sands China Ltd. engages with the local Macao community as a part of Sands Cares – the charitable giving programme of parent company Las Vegas Sands Corp. Sands Cares integrates the company’s philanthropic work worldwide in four key areas: financial giving, community problem solving and collaboration, in-kind donations, and team member volunteerism.

Key areas of Sands Cares in Macao include the Sands Cares Ambassador programme for volunteering in the local community; charitable contributions to NGOs and community organisations; and sponsorship of community events.

For more information, please visit www.sands.com/sands-cares/ 

About NBA Social Impact & Inclusion and NBA Cares

NBA Social Impact & Inclusion drives change on issues facing fans and communities by advancing needed resources and proven partners while creating data-driven strategies and programming to impact the NBA ecosystem and empower colleagues to bring their best self to work to drive global success. NBA Cares works with NBA players and teams to highlight important issues through the NBA’s digital, social and broadcast channels, live events and partnerships.

Media contacts:
Corporate Communications, Sands China Ltd.
Mabel Wu
Tel: +853 8118 2268
Email: mabel.wu@sands.com.mo 

Jesse Chiang
Tel: +853 8118 2054
Email: jesse.chiang@sands.com.mo

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SOURCE Sands China Ltd.

HO CHI MINH CITY, Vietnam, Oct. 14, 2025 /PRNewswire/ — In a heartfelt demonstration of empathy and community spirit, 15 volunteers from Vantage Foundation spent a day at Laws for Paws Vietnam, a local non-profit organization dedicated to rescuing and rehabilitating abandoned and abused dogs.

The activity was part of Vantage Foundation’s broader mission to create positive social impact through meaningful, hands-on volunteer work. Throughout the day, volunteers participated in a series of activities, from walking and bathing the dogs to assisting with general care, ensuring that each animal receives not only physical attention but also the emotional connection crucial to their recovery.

“This was more than just a volunteering activity; it was a humbling experience that reminded us of the power of compassion,” said Adam, Sales Director of Vantage Markets. “Many of us formed genuine bonds with the dogs and witnessed firsthand how small acts of kindness can make a big difference in their healing journey.”

The day was filled with warmth, laughter, and shared affection as volunteers interacted closely with the animals, many of whom have endured neglect or abuse before being rescued. The experience left a deep impression on the Vantage team, reinforcing the foundation’s belief that care, and kindness should extend beyond human communities, to all living beings who need it.

Laws for Paws Vietnam continues to play an essential role in animal welfare, providing rescued dogs with medical care, rehabilitation, and a safe path to adoption. Vantage Foundation is proud to support their mission and to raise awareness of the importance of compassion-driven community initiatives.

“Through partnerships like this, we’re reminded that creating impact doesn’t always require large-scale programs, it can begin with empathy and a willingness to give our time,” said Steven Xie, Executive Director of Vantage Foundation. “Every volunteer effort is a step toward a kinder and more inclusive world.”

Vantage Foundation

Vantage Foundation is an independent charitable organization launched at the McLaren Technology Centre in the UK in 2023. The foundation has partnered with organisations worldwide, including Grab Indonesia, the iREDE Foundation in Nigeria, Teach for Malaysia, and Instituto Claret in Brazil, to drive impactful social initiatives.

For more information, please visit www.vantage.foundation

Foundation Laureus Sport for Good

Laureus uses the power of sport to transform lives of children and young people from the most vulnerable communities, helping them overcome violence, discrimination and disadvantages.

For more information, please visit www.laureus.com and laureus.es

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SOURCE Vantage Foundation

Modern Financial Close and new SensibleAI™ capabilities advance the path to a Touchless Close – automating key processes to help Finance navigate volatility, maintain compliance, and deliver real-time insight.

LONDON, Oct. 14, 2025 /PRNewswire/ — OneStream (NASDAQ: OS), the leading enterprise Finance management platform that modernizes the Office of the CFO by unifying core finance and operational functions – including financial close, consolidation, reporting, planning and forecasting, today announced at its Splash EMEA 2025 user conference the launch of Modern Financial Close, AI-powered OneStream ESG Planning & Reporting, and a suite of new SensibleAI capabilities. Together, these innovations will empower Finance leaders to close the books faster, forecast with greater precision, and gain deeper insights into the relationship between financial performance and sustainability goals — all within the trusted governance and transparency of the OneStream platform.

“As AI reshapes how businesses operate, Finance recognizes that uncertainty isn’t just a passing storm — it’s the climate we’re operating in,” said Tom Shea, CEO & President, OneStream. “CFOs are at the center of this, leading AI adoption while steering the business through volatility. Today’s news highlights how OneStream helps Finance leaders harness AI and automation within their teams to boost productivity, maintain compliance, and unlock growth in this new era.”

Introducing Modern Financial Close: Closing Faster with Accuracy, Transparency and Control

OneStream’s Modern Financial Close automates and unifies each phase of the close process — from journal entry to reconciliation — on one platform. By unifying fragmented systems and manual workflows, Modern Financial Close helps finance teams reduce cycle times while strengthening auditability and compliance – delivering a true end-to-end solution for automated financial close.

Key enhancements include:

• OneStream
  Journal Entry Manager (JEM) centralizes journal entry management across multiple ERPs and business units, providing lifecycle control, audit trails, and automatic generation of recurring and adjusting entries.
• OneStream Transaction Matching (TXM) automates high-volume reconciliations for intercompany, invoice-to-receipt, and corporate credit card transactions — helping Finance resolve exceptions faster and close with greater accuracy.

OneStream announced SensibleAI Account Reconciliations, powered by SensibleAI Studio, earlier this year, allowing users to leverage AI to detect anomalies and flag risks – such as unusual adjustments or missing documentation – early in the close process. Now, with the addition of JEM and high-volume TXM, OneStream is delivering a comprehensive, end-to-end platform for automated financial close – bringing Finance leaders a step closer to a “Touchless Close.”

OneStream was also recognized as Exemplary in the 2025 Record to Report Buyers Guide by ISG Research, covering Financial Close, Financial Consolidation, and overall Record to Report. The company achieved the highest scores in both customer and product experience, reinforcing its position as a trusted leader in Financial Close and Consolidation.

AI-Powered OneStream ESG Planning & Reporting

In its third major release this year, OneStream ESG Planning & Reporting unifies sustainability and financial planning within one workflow. Now powered by SensibleAI Forecast and SensibleAI Agents, the solution enables finance teams to forecast consumptive activities and model Scope 1, 2, and 3 emissions, forecast carbon impact, and align ESG initiatives with financial performance.

• With SensibleAI Forecast, teams can model climate mitigation strategies, regulatory impacts, and ESG investment scenarios alongside financial forecasts, linking sustainability data with financial close standards for enhanced credibility with regulators, investors, and stakeholders.
• With Operational Analytics + Agentic AI Integration (Coming Soon), OneStream ESG Planning & Reporting will incorporate OneStream SensibleAI Agents to analyze intelligent data, detect anomalies, and generate and summarize narrative reports.

Advancing Finance AI: Delivering Trusted, Contextualized Insights with New Routines to SensibleAI Studio

The SensibleAI™ portfolio empowers the Office of Finance by unifying quantitative, generative, and agentic solutions and surfacing them into existing workflows Finance leaders already trust and know. Built directly on the OneStream platform, SensibleAI solutions provide contextualized insights – from financial intelligence to workflow state, consolidation status and more – to ensure decisions are made with accuracy and confidence. New capabilities include:

• SensibleAI Benchmarking and Outlier Analysis: Found on the SensibleAI Studio, this pre-built routine brings financial and operational workflows together in a visual dashboard, allowing users to cluster similar operations for accurate benchmarking, identify anomalies to understand under- and over-performance, and cluster these ‘like’ operations for greater insights that maximize output and cost performance.
• Expanded AI Routines: SensibleAI Studio has doubled the number of routines since its general availability in June 2025, enabling faster building and deployment of commercial-grade AI data science functionality within the OneStream platform – one of the fastest solutions on the market.

“OneStream’s SensibleAI really stood out, giving us the transparency that we needed in terms of forecasting revenue, understanding the relativity of different drivers, and the impact to our revenue forecasts,” said Rebecca Yu, Head of Transformation at Endeavour Energy.

To learn more about these solutions, please visit www.onestream.com

Forward-Looking Statements

This press release contains forward-looking statements within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. All statements other than statements of historical facts contained in this press release may be forward-looking statements. In some cases, you can identify forward-looking statements by terms such as “may,” “will,” “should,” “expects,” “plans,” “anticipates,” “could,” “intends,” “targets,” “projects,” “contemplates,” “believes,” “estimates,” “predicts,” “potential” or “continue” or the negative of these terms or other similar expressions. Forward-looking statements contained in this press release include, but are not limited to, statements regarding our Modern Financial Close and new SensibleAI capabilities, including AI-Powered ESG Planning & Reporting. Forward-looking statements are subject to known and unknown risks, uncertainties, assumptions and other factors. Some of these risks are described in greater detail in our Quarterly Report on Form 10-Q for the quarter ended June 30, 2025 and the other filings OneStream makes with the Securities and Exchange Commission from time to time. It is not possible for our management to predict all risks, nor can we assess the impact of all factors on our business or the extent to which any factor, or combination of factors, may cause our actual results to differ materially from those contained in any forward-looking statements we may make. These factors may cause our actual results, performance or achievements to differ materially and adversely from those anticipated or implied by our forward-looking statements. Furthermore, if our forward-looking statements prove to be inaccurate, the inaccuracy may be material. In light of the significant uncertainties in these forward-looking statements, you should not rely on these statements or regard these statements as a representation or warranty by us or any other person that we will achieve our objectives and plans in any specified timeframe, or at all. We undertake no obligation to update any forward-looking statements, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise, except as required by law.

About OneStream

OneStream is how today’s Finance teams can go beyond just reporting on the past and Take Finance Further™ by steering the business to the future. It’s the leading enterprise Finance platform that unifies financial and operational data, embeds AI for better decisions and productivity, and empowers the CFO to become a critical driver of business strategy and execution.

We deliver a comprehensive cloud-based platform to modernize the Office of the CFO. Our Digital Finance Cloud unifies core financial and broader operational data and processes and embeds AI for better planning and forecasting, with an extensible architecture, so customers can adopt and develop new solutions, achieving greater value as their business needs evolve.

With over 1,600 customers, including 17% of the Fortune 500, a strong ecosystem of go-to-market, implementation, and development partners and over 1,500 employees, our vision is to be the operating system for modern Finance. To learn more, visit onestream.com.

CONTACT

Media Contact
Jaclyn Proctor
Media Relations Contact
OneStream
media@onestreamsoftware.com

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SOURCE OneStream, Inc.

PARIS, Oct. 14, 2025 /PRNewswire/ — Reju, together with 11 other companies representing the textile value chain, today launched the European Circular Textile Coalition’s manifesto for a fully circular textile economy, urging the EU to transform post-consumer textile waste into a driver of green jobs, innovation and competitiveness.

Europe generates 12.6 million tonnes of textile waste annually, with most of it landfilled, incinerated or exported and just 1% recycled back into new garments. The coalition stresses that this is no longer acceptable.

“We refuse to accept textile waste as an inevitability, instead, we see it as a solvable challenge for our generation,” the manifesto states. The coalition calls for urgent EU action to match regulatory ambition with investment in recycling and manufacturing systems.

“Without system readiness, even the most forward-looking regulations risk falling short. We are here to help bridge that gap,” the group highlights. To drive change, the manifesto sets out three policy pillars:

1. Ensure a competitive European textile chain, bringing production back to European shores to uphold environmental and labour standards.
2. Prioritise high-quality textile-to-textile recycling, making post-consumer textile waste the main feedstock for new textiles.
3. Set mandatory recycled content in textiles, with ambitious but realistic targets phased in over time.

‘Reju is a system change company and we strongly believe that change happens with collaboration. That is why this collation is important to drive change collectively as anindustry pulling together and we welcome more businesses to join us.’ says Patrik Frisk,Reju CEO.

“Voluntary efforts have proven grossly insufficient – we need binding standards to drive
demand for recycled materials,” the coalition insists.

The coalition is launching an advocacy tour to engage policymakers and invites other actors from across the textile value chain to join its mission.

“Now is the time to act — because when a world without waste is possible, we cannot
afford to wait!”

About the European Circular Textile Coaltion
The coalition is formed of businesses across the textile value chain; Reju, Resortecs, COLEO, Tissage de Charlieu, Synergies TLC, Nouvelles Fibres Textiles, Sympany, European Spinning Group, Ariadne, Erdotex, Utexbel, Noyfil

About Reju
Reju is a materials regeneration company focused on creating innovative solutions for regenerating polyester textiles and post-consumer PET waste. Owned by Technip Energies and utilizing technology originating with IBM Research, Reju is driven by its purpose to unlock infinite possibilities within finite resources. The company aims to establish a global textile recycling circular system to regenerate and recirculate polyester textiles. Learn more at https://www.reju.com/.

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SOURCE Reju

BEIJING, Oct. 14, 2025 /PRNewswire/ — JA Solar, a trusted global partner in green energy, achieved a major milestone with the start of volume production and initial shipments of its latest high-efficiency module, DeepBlue 5.0, from its advanced manufacturing base in Yangzhou, China. The launch highlights JA Solar’s ability to scale next-generation PV technology efficiently, demonstrating its position as a reliable partner for commercial and industrial markets worldwide.

DeepBlue 5.0 leverages JA Solar’s proprietary Bycium+ 5.0 n-type cell technology and advanced TOPCon architecture to achieve up to 650W of power output and a conversion efficiency of 24.07%. Its high-density interconnection design enhances energy yield and ensures long-term reliability, even under harsh environmental conditions. With a temperature coefficient of –0.26%/°C and bi-faciality of 85% ±5%, the module sustains strong performance across diverse climates and installation scenarios.

Critical to this achievement is the Yangzhou manufacturing facility, a fully automated site equipped with intelligent quality control systems and high-capacity production lines. The facility is a central hub in JA Solar’s manufacturing network, supporting rapid, high-volume delivery with strict quality standards. The successful rollout of DeepBlue 5.0 underscores the company’s capability to execute complex production processes efficiently, ensuring that advanced modules reach international markets on schedule.

“The first shipment of DeepBlue 5.0 demonstrates both our technological innovation and the strength of our manufacturing operations,” said Aiqing Yang, Executive President of JA Solar. “Our partners can rely on consistent, large-scale supply with high performance and long-term reliability.”

With DeepBlue 5.0 now in initial delivery, JA Solar continues to strengthen its production and R&D capacity, positioning the company to meet growing demand for high-efficiency PV solutions worldwide. For collaboration opportunities or product inquiries, please contact: marketing@jasolar.com.

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SOURCE JA Solar Technology Co., Ltd.

• The U.S. softwood lumber industry is a critical manufacturing industry essential to national economic strength and the industrial resilience of the United States
• Canada’s unfair trade in softwood lumber continues to be extremely harmful to U.S. producers and workers
• Section 232 tariffs on softwood lumber product imports from around the world will facilitate a reliable supply of softwood lumber products made in the USA

WASHINGTON, Oct. 14, 2025 /PRNewswire/ — “President Trump’s America First focus on strong and effective trade law enforcement is setting the stage for the U.S. lumber industry to continue its capacity growth, and with it securing an increasing stable and dependable supply of U.S.-made lumber to build America’s homes,” stated Andrew Miller, Chair and Owner of Stimson Lumber Company.

“The U.S. Lumber Coalition applauds President Trump’s imposition of an additional 10 percent tariff against unfairly traded lumber imports. This well-reasoned and appropriate measure will be critical to counter drastically escalating foreign unfair trade practices, such as Canada’s continued dumping and subsidization of its industry.”

“Predictably, the National Association of Homebuilders, also known as NAHB, is attacking President Trump’s decisive and pivotal trade law enforcement actions by continuing to peddle the false narrative that holding Canada to account for its ever-increasing and egregious unfair trade practices will somehow exacerbate the problem of U.S. housing affordability,” stated Zoltan van Heyningen, Executive Director of the U.S. Lumber Coalition.

“What NAHB won’t point out is that lumber prices have declined since antidumping and countervailing duties increased to 35.16 percent, nor will NAHB point out that their own data shows that lumber makes up less than two percent of the cost of an average new single family home, and especially not that their own profit margins in recent years have increased from 11 percent to almost 16 percent,” added van Heyningen.

“We agree with President Trump, NAHB should stop complaining about the United States enforcing its trade laws and channel that energy into building more homes in the United States,” concluded van Heyningen. 

In a letter earlier this year, the U.S. lumber industry expressed its strong support for President Trump’s unyielding focus on enforcing our trade laws against all foreign unfair trade practices: https://uslumbercoalition.org/story/u-s-lumber-industry-and-workers-letter-to-president-trump/

U.S. lumber community voices on President Trump’s trade law enforcement and the positive impacts on U.S. manufacturing: https://vimeo.com/1086817309?fl=pl&fe=ti

Enforcing the U.S. trade laws helps increase the U.S. supply of lumber to build American homes, all without impacting the cost of a new home, as demonstrated by data from the NAHB and Fastmarkets Random Lengths.

U.S. Lumber Coalition questions NAHB’s advocating for unfairly traded Canadian lumber imports and Canadian jobs at the expense of U.S. lumber producers and jobs: https://uslumbercoalition.org/press-release/u-s-lumber-coalition-questions-the-national-association-of-homebuilders-advocating-for-unfairly-traded-canadian-lumber-imports-and-canadian-jobs-at-the-expense-of-u-s-lumber-producers-and-jobs/

About the U.S. Lumber Coalition

The U.S. Lumber Coalition is an alliance of large and small softwood lumber producers from around the country, joined by their employees and woodland owners, working to address Canada’s unfair lumber trade practices. Our goal is to serve as the voice of the American lumber community and effectively address Canada’s unfair softwood lumber trade practices. The Coalition supports the full enforcement of the U.S. trade laws to allow the U.S. industry to invest and grow to its natural size without being impaired by unfairly traded imports. Continued full enforcement of the U.S. trade laws will strengthen domestic supply lines by maximizing long-term domestic production and lumber availability produced by U.S. workers to build U.S. homes. For more information, please visit the Coalition’s website at www.uslumbercoalition.org.

CONTACT: Zoltan van Heyningen
zoltan@uslumbercoalition.org | 202-805-9133

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SOURCE The U.S. Lumber Coalition

The divisive bill unfairly targeted vulnerable diaspora communities, while ignoring rising anti-Hindu hate in California, including the vandalization of four Hindu temples.

SACRAMENTO, Calif., Oct. 13, 2025 /PRNewswire/ — The Coalition of Hindus of North America (CoHNA) welcomes Governor Gavin Newsom’s veto of SB509, a California bill ostensibly about Transnational Repression (TNR) that would have painted a target on the back of immigrant-heavy communities. He called out the need to stay flexible in alignment with federal directives, and we agree. Despite months of good faith engagement with the author’s office, the bill remained divisive, duplicative, and expensive. Its vague terminology could be weaponized, by vested interests with access to institutional power, to unfairly target vulnerable diaspora communities in the State.

“This is a victory for common sense and equal treatment before law, so we thank Governor Newsom for doing the right thing. Nobody deserves to be labelled ‘agents of foreign governments’ for simply having an opinion that runs contrary to the ideological bent of powerful privileged lawmakers, academics, and media,” said Sudha Jagannathan, CoHNA’s board member and head of government relations. “This was truly a community effort. We thank the large number of individual organizations and volunteers who came together to make their voices heard.”

Had SB509 become law, it would have given California’s Office of Emergency Services the power to train local law enforcement officials on how to identify  “foreign proxies”—without clearly defining who those proxies are, and without any evidence that such threats even exist in the state. It would have put individuals with foreign roots, advocating for their community, at risk of being labelled foreign government “proxies”. For instance, California Hindus opposing the vandalisation of their neighbourhood mandir with anti-India graffiti could be labelled as proxies of the Indian government.

Twenty-one Assembly Members had abstained from voting on the measure. In the run up to the veto, dozens of organizations, civic and elected leaders from diverse backgrounds had signed a coalition letter asking the Governor to veto SB509. CoHNA thanks community leaders like Ajay Jain Bhutoria as well as interfaith allies and elected officials who faced attacks for stating professional concerns regarding the bill. It takes courage to stand against powerful voices seeking to subvert institutions.

“For the past two years we have watched in horror as California lawmakers have ignored the real and rising anti-Hindu hate in the state—as documented by the state itself. They have ignored four vandalism attacks on Hindu temples and prioritized bills that further empower privileged groups at the expense of those that do not,” said Pushpita Prasad, CoHNA board member and longtime California resident who has been leading efforts to address temple vandalism and hate incidents. “We thank Governor Newsom for staying true to his promise of ‘California For All’. Now we must make sure that State institutions like POST also review and revise materials that were created with no input from diverse groups,” she added.

SB509 (a redo of the failed AB3027 bill introduced in 2024) attempted to differentiate between various California communities and weaponize rising hate. California’s own reporting has shown a rise in anti-Hindu hate for four straight years. In 2024, its report showed alarming levels of anti-Hindu hate, second only to antisemitism in the State. In a stark illustration of this hate, Hindu temples have been repeatedly desecrated by acts of vandalism between December  2023 and March 2025, all under the guise of anti-India slogans. Yet, there have seen no arrests or prosecutions for any of these hate crimes.

The extremists who attack our temples imply, through their actions, that the congregants of these temples are proxies for the Indian government and, thus, perfectly fine targets. This is true even for a temple founded and run by Hindus from places as far away from India as the Caribbean. Our community has been gripped by the very real fear that SB509 would give legal weight to the presumption that Hindu and Hindu places are proxies for the Indian government.

CoHNA is glad to see the failure of this latest attempt to co-opt institutional power for partisan ideological purposes. We demand all lawmakers who voted for this bill to, instead, focus on equality and justice, and spend taxpayer money on real issues facing California. At a time when communities in southern California that were ravaged by wildfire are still struggling to return to normalcy, it is absurd that State lawmakers were ready to stress an already overburdened Office of Emergency Services with needless TNR training.

Today’s win is a culmination of the efforts of the entire Hindu American community, and the hundreds of organizations, temples, businesses, and allies that spoke up in the face of attempts to intimidate them. We thank our volunteers and supporters who have been opposing this bill since March 2025. Together, we have made countless calls and emails, had meetings with dozens of legislative offices and gone to Sacramento three times to testify in opposition. CoHNA remains committed to working with lawmakers, interfaith allies, and civic leaders to ensure that California stays true to its promise of equality, fairness, and safety for all communities.

About CoHNA

CoHNA is a grassroots level advocacy and civil rights organization dedicated to improving the understanding of Hinduism in North America by working on matters related to the Hindu community and by educating the public about Hindu heritage and tradition. For more information, please visit https://cohna.org or follow us on X (formerly Twitter),  Facebook, LinkedIn and Instagram.

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SOURCE Coalition of Hindus of North America