MENLO PARK, California: A former Google engineer who was fired over a memo he wrote about gender differences says he’s exploring all his legal options and has already filed a labor complaint over his treatment.
James Damore, whose memo over the weekend caused an uproar online, says in an e-mail that he was terminated late Monday for “perpetuating gender stereotypes.” He says he considers his firing illegal because he had already filed a complaint with the National Labor Relations Board.
The board declined to comment.
A filing by Damore with the board Monday alleged he was subjected to “coercive statements” while at Google.
Google declined to comment on the matter, but an e-mail from CEO Sundar Pichai on Monday called Damore’s memo “harmful” and said he’d address staff in a town hall Thursday.
Fired Google engineer files complaint, weighs legal options
Fired Google engineer files complaint, weighs legal options
UN envoy hopeful on Cyprus, says multi-party summit premature
- Holguin said she was hopeful after meeting with Greek Cypriot leader Nikos Christodoulides and Turkish Cypriot leader Tufan Erhurman
- “While encouraging, the dialogue process between both leaders is at its early beginning”
NICOSIA: The key UN envoy seeking to break a deadlock in Cyprus’s long-running division said she was cautiously optimistic about a breakthrough but that it would be premature to convene a multi-nation summit on the conflict.
In an interview with Cyprus’s Phileleftheros daily, envoy Maria Angela Holguin said she was hopeful after meeting with Greek Cypriot leader Nikos Christodoulides and Turkish Cypriot leader Tufan Erhurman on December 11. She said their discussion, which agreed to focus also on confidence-building, was “deep, sincere and very straightforward.”
“While encouraging, the dialogue process between both leaders is at its early beginning. More will need to be done in order to strengthen the nascent momentum and establish a real climate of trust that would allow the Secretary-General to convene a 5+1 informal meeting,” said Holguin, a former Colombian foreign minister.
A 5+1 meeting would be an informal summit of the two Cypriot communities with United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres and representatives of Britain, Turkiye and Greece to define how to move forward and break a seven-year stalemate in peace talks. The three NATO nations are guarantor powers of Cyprus under a treaty which granted the island independence from Britain in 1960.
A power-sharing administration of Cypriot Greeks and Turks crumbled in 1963. Turkiye invaded the north of the island in 1974 after a brief coup engineered by the military then ruling Greece. The island has been split on ethnic lines ever since.
Turkish Cypriots live in a breakaway state in the north, while Greek Cypriots in the south run an internationally recognized administration representing the whole island in the European Union.
