By KEN SWEET (AP Business Writer)

NEW YORK (AP) — Apple is discontinuing its buy now, pay later service known as Apple Pay Later barely a year after its initial launch in the U.S., and will rely on companies who already dominate the industry like Affirm and Klarna.

It’s an acknowledgement from a company known for producing hit products that building a financial services business from scratch as Apple has been doing for several years is difficult and highly competitive.

Apple Pay Later launched with fanfare in March 2023 as a way for iPhone customers to split purchases of up to $1,000 into four equal payments with no fees or interest. The service was Apple’s answer to the growing popularity of buy now, pay later services globally, and considered a sizeable threat to companies like Klarna, Affirm and others.

But Apple Pay Later was only available where Apple Pay was accepted whereas the other buy now, pay later companies had deeply integrated themselves into millions of merchant websites.

In an acknowledgement of how popular buy now, pay later services had become, Apple said at its developer’s conference this month that it would start allowing banks to offer buy now, pay later plans to their customers through Apple Pay and Apple Wallet. Affirm would be integrated directly into Apple Wallet, and Apple customers would be able to open an Affirm account directly.

“With the introduction of this new global installment loan offering, we will no longer offer Apple Pay Later in the U.S.,” Apple said late Monday. “Our focus continues to be on providing our users with access to easy, secure and private payment options with Apple Pay, and this solution will enable us to bring flexible payments to more users, in more places across the globe, in collaboration with Apple Pay enabled banks and lenders.”

Apple executives as recently as this month had indicated that the company still had plans for Apple Pay Later despite announcing plans to integrate Affirm directly into Apple Wallet.

Apple Pay Later was unique because Apple needed to create its own bank to offer the loans. The Apple Card is issued by Goldman Sachs, which means Goldman ultimately decides who gets approved and what spending limits are for each customer.

Apple has discontinued any new Apple Pay Later loans, but customers who have existing Apple Pay Later loans will be able to manage them inside Apple Pay.

NEW YORK (AP) — Singer Justin Timberlake was arrested early Tuesday and is accused of driving while intoxicated on New York’s Long Island, authorities said.

Timberlake was expected to be arraigned in Sag Harbor, on the eastern end of Long Island, according to a statement from the Suffolk County district attorney’s office.

Timberlake’s representatives did not immediately return requests for comment from The Associated Press.

Sag Harbor is a coastal village in the Hamptons, around 100 miles (160 kilometers) from New York City. In the summer, it is a hotspot for wealthy visitors.

A young Timberlake was a Disney Mouseketeer, where his castmates included future girlfriend Britney Spears. He rose to fame in the popular boy band NSYNC and embarked on a solo recording career in 2002. As an actor, Timberlake has won acclaim in movies including” The Social Network” and “Friends With Benefits.”

He has won ten Grammy awards and four Primetime Emmy Awards.

Last year, Timberlake was in the headlines when Spears released her memoir, “The Woman in Me.” Several chapters are devoted to their relationship, including deeply personal details about a pregnancy, abortion and painful breakup. In March, he released his first new album in six years, the nostalgic “Everything I Thought It Was,” a return to his familiar future funk sound.

Timberlake has two upcoming shows in Chicago on Friday and Saturday, then is scheduled for New York’s Madison Square Garden next week on Tuesday and Wednesday.

For over a year, employees of the Texas Department of Agriculture (TDA) have been subject to a dress code that is transphobic and potentially illegal. The policy has caused turmoil within the agency, emails obtained by the Texas Observer and interviews reveal, along with contributing to a chilling atmosphere for LGBTQ+ workers. 

Last April, the Observer broke the news that the TDA had implemented a new dress code which required employees to dress “in a manner consistent with their biological gender”—an apparent attempt to restrict how transgender and nonbinary employees express themselves. Sid Miller, the Texas Agriculture Commissioner, defended the policy in media appearances and on social media. Since then, the nonprofit American Oversight obtained a cache of emails pertaining to the policy through a public information request and provided those emails to the Observer. The emails show that senior agency staff were aware TDA was wading into legally dubious waters and that a number of employees objected to its implementation and felt personally discriminated against.

Austin Kaplan, an employment attorney in Austin, told the Observer he was “surprised” that no one has yet sued TDA over the policy. “It certainly seems like an issue that could be ripe for litigation because it’s right on its face discriminating against people for sexual orientation or transgender status.”

In a landmark 2020 Supreme Court decision, Bostock v. Clayton County, justices ruled that Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 protects employees against discrimination for their gender or sexual identity. In the emails, the question of whether that ruling applies to the proposed dress code is discussed by senior staff at the TDA. 

“I do not feel the same level of safety that I did in previous state jobs.”

On April 18, 2023, TDA Policy Analyst Carter Page, shared a chart comparing interpretations of the law under the Obama and Trump administrations, commenting: “This table below offers a very good summary, regarding how volatile these controversial related policy / legal questions have remained over the last decade or so.” This email was to multiple recipients including TDA General Counsel Tim Kleinschmidt and Terry Keel, Assistant Commissioner of Agriculture for Enforcement, Consumer Protection, and Border Security. On April 24, 2023, Page shared news of Ken Paxton supporting a lawsuit over transgender athletes led by Tennessee, including Paxton’s legal arguments about both Title VII and Title IX of the Civil Rights Act. The email was sent to Miller and other top TDA officials. 

“The records that we have received demonstrate that senior TDA officials were well aware of the potentially unlawful nature of their policy,” said Chioma Chukwu, interim executive director at American Oversight, a nonprofit that aims to use public records law to combat corruption. “[TDA officials] were taking precautions to try and defend something that is otherwise indefensible in light of Title VII.”

According to Kaplan, “It was made abundantly clear by the Supreme Court that LGBTQ+ rights are protected by federal statute and employers are not permitted to discriminate. The conservative politicians might not like it, the conservative elected agency heads might not like it, but they don’t really have a choice.”

Though the Supreme Court hasn’t ruled specifically on dress codes for transgender employees, Kaplan noted that courts have begun to make important rulings based on Bostock. For example, in March, the Eleventh Circuit Court of Appeals ruled in favor of a transgender male prison guard who sued after being repeatedly harassed over his gender identity by coworkers. 

TDA did not respond to multiple requests for comment about its dress code or other topics revealed in the emails.

The emails also show that some employees revolted against the policy. On April 30, 2023, Lena Wilson, assistant commissioner for food and nutrition, gave her employees a warning. “Please remember that political discussions need to occur outside the office,” she wrote. “I can’t stress enough how important it is for you to voice your concerns with your leadership chain or HR.”

About two weeks later, an employee whose name was redacted wrote that “The email on 4/30/2023 made me unsure about how to express my concern about the new dress code policy since discussing political or sensitive subjects appeared to be discouraged. … The audacity and impact of this policy has garnered national attention, damaging the reputation of the agency and our division,” the employee continued. “How can we as a division mandate that our program participants comply with civil rights policy when our own leadership does not?”

Another employee with a redacted name wrote: “Within the past six months, several trans, queer, and/or gender-nonconforming staff have been hired by the TDA. This timing could lead one to conclude that this policy is a direct result of trans visibility in the workplace. By implementing discriminatory policies, TDA forces compliance with behaviors that contradict our identities, or makes the workplace uncomfortable enough that we are forced to leave.”

This May, the Observer spoke with a current employee in TDA’s food and nutrition division, who confirmed that the dress code remains in place. “I was disgusted while reading through all of the agency operating procedures during my first few days of work,” said the employee, who is queer and requested anonymity to avoid retaliation from TDA.

Previously, the employee worked elsewhere in state government. “Although I am open about my queerness, I do not feel the same level of safety that I did in previous state jobs.”

Natalie Rougeux, an employment lawyer in New Braunfels who represents employers and has provided employment law training for TDA, told the Observer she’d strongly advise her clients against adopting similar policies to the TDA dress code. “Let’s just say, hypothetically, an employee is terminated from employment, and they feel that it’s due to their transgender status. That policy could certainly be used as circumstantial evidence of an animus toward individuals who are transgender.” 

Rougeux noted that the Supreme Court, in its Bostock decision on gender identity, had not ruled on issues like attire, which it deliberately left for future cases. “I don’t want one of my clients to be that future case.” 

An email from Rougeux was included in the documents provided by American Oversight. In it, Rougeux responded to an apparent complaint (not included in the records) from a TDA human resources employee about a training Rougeux had provided. “I removed the issue of bathroom choice and attire from my training in light of the Texas and Tennessee cases and your commissioner’s stance on the issue, but I feel that deliberately deadnaming an individual could still be harassment. … My apologies if I did anything upsetting. However, I do stand by my training,” Rougeux wrote in the June 12, 2023, message. 

“Deadnaming” means calling a transgender person by a former or incorrect name. In the email, Rougeux referenced 2022 court rulings in Texas and Tennessee that struck down federal Equal Employment Opportunity Commission guidelines on sexual orientation and gender identity. The EEOC has since issued revised guidelines, which Texas and other states are once again challenging. But, the bottom line, according to Rougeux, is that nothing prevents “employees from filing claims if they felt they were being mistreated in the workplace due to their gender identity or sexual orientation.” 

Kaplan agreed with Rougeux. “If you’re deadnaming someone, you may well be harassing them on the basis of their sexual orientation.”

Sid Miller took to social media to share a transphobic meme last April. (Screenshot/Twitter)

TDA’s dress code has drawn continued fire from advocates. Sarah Kate Ellis, president of the national pro-LGBTQ+ group GLAAD, condemned the policy in a written statement to the Observer.  “LGBTQ people farm, work and live in Texas,” she wrote. “Commissioner Miller works for them too. All Texans deserve a public servant who serves all in public, and at minimum doesn’t waste time and money targeting people for who they are or how they dress.”

Miller has continued to publicly defend the dress code on social media as recently as April. In response to the Observer reposting its original story about the TDA policy on X, Miller responded: “Men are men. Women are women, and the @TexasObserver is a clown show.” 

According to Chukwu, this kind of public behavior along with the emails themselves show Miller’s priorities are out of alignment with his job. 

“The commissioner, who was one of the policy’s architects, was more concerned with appeasing the anti-trans and anti-nonbinary sentiments of certain officials than with creating a comfortable and inclusive work environment for all employees.”