World News
Confined, workers flee: unprecedented rebellion in an iPhone factory in China
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Sylvie Claire / November 23, 2022
Let’s defend our rights!”: employee protests broke out Wednesday in China in the world’s largest iPhone factory, owned by Taiwanese subcontractor Foxconn, according to images posted on social networks Twitter and Weibo. The factory is located in Zhengzhou, capital of Henan province (center). It is a huge industrial site that usually employs some 200,000 people, most of whom reside on site in dormitories.
China is relentlessly pursuing a zero Covid health policy, which involves strict confinements, quarantines for those who test positive and almost daily PCR tests, causing growing discontent among the population. Some people, such as students and workers, may be confined to campuses or production sites for many weeks at a time, with no opportunity to move around freely.
Images of the protests, which AFP was unable to verify, show a crowd of workers marching down a street. Some are facing people in white full-body protective suits and riot police. In other footage, hundreds of people in the white suits can be seen standing on a road near what appear to be factory dormitories. The person filming from an adjacent building says, “It’s happening again. It’s been going on since last night until this morning. »
Another video clip apparently shows security guards kicking a person who appears to be a worker lying on a road.
And in a live video broadcast at night, dozens of workers shout “defend our rights!” in front of rows of police officers and a police vehicle with its lights on. Then the author of the video shouts “they charge!” and “tear gas canisters!”.
A video clip of the same night demonstration, taken from a different angle, shows workers setting off fire extinguishers in the direction of police officers outside the camera’s field. A daytime photo shows the charred remains of a gate, apparently burned during the night. The keyword #Foxconn riots seemed to be censored Wednesday afternoon on Chinese social networks, including Weibo. Some messages referring to the protests remained online, however.
Foxconn is a large group that assembles electronic products for many international brands. The Taiwanese company, Apple’s main subcontractor, has been confronted in recent months with an increase in Covid-19 cases at its huge Zhengzhou site.
Foxconn had decided to confine the area, with the workers inside. But hundreds of panicked workers then fled on foot, some complaining about the chaos and disorganization.
To keep the plant afloat, the company offered large bonuses to remaining employees and tried to recruit new workers. The American giant Apple, whose flagship product is the iPhone, had admitted in early November that the site lockdown had “temporarily affected” the production of the factory, a blow before the holiday sales period.
Foxconn is China’s largest private sector employer, with more than a million employees across the country in some 30 factories and research institutes. The Taiwanese group did not immediately respond to a request for comment from AFP.
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Sylvie Claire / July 21, 2024
Donald Trump and Volodymyr Zelensky spoke on the phone on Friday, with the former US president claiming to have promised the Ukrainian president to “end the war” between Ukraine and Russia should he return to the White House. “As your next president of the United States, I will bring peace to the world and end the war that has cost so many lives,” said the Republican presidential candidate.
Donald Trump frequently claims that he would be able to put an end to the conflict in Ukraine very quickly on his return to power, but never provides details of how he would achieve this. Volodymyr Zelensky confirmed the phone call, during which he congratulated the billionaire on his official nomination the previous day as the Republican Party’s presidential candidate.
Donald Trump’s frequent praise of Russian President Vladimir Putin, as well as his criticism of other Nato countries, is causing concern among Ukraine’s Western allies. In February, he threatened that, if he returned to the White House, he would no longer guarantee the protection of Atlantic Alliance countries against Russia if they did not pay their share, even claiming that he would “encourage” Moscow to attack them. The former American president also used his power over the Republicans to block a $61 billion military aid package for Kiev for months in Congress, which was finally adopted at the end of April.
In his posting on X on Friday, Volodymyr Zelensky said he had “agreed with President Trump to discuss, in a face-to-face meeting, the steps to be taken towards a just and lasting peace” in Ukraine.
World News
Former Ukrainian far-right MP murdered in Lviv: “All leads are being investigated, including Russia”
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Steph Deschamps / July 21, 2024
In a message on Telegram, the Ukrainian National Police said she had succumbed to her injuries in hospital after being the target of an assassination attempt.
“I always say that no place is safe in Ukraine,” lamented Lviv mayor Andriï Sadovy, denouncing a ‘heinous murder’ and offering his condolences to the victim’s relatives.
According to the Ukrainian Prosecutor’s Office, the attack took place on Friday evening, at around 7.30pm, when an unidentified individual fired at Irina Farion, seriously wounding her in the head. “All surveillance cameras are being checked, witnesses are being interviewed and several districts (of Lviv) are being examined. All leads are being investigated, including the one leading to Russia”, reacted Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky on X on Saturday.
Interior Minister Igor Klimenko told a briefing in Lviv on Friday evening that the suspected killer could have been lurking around Irina Farion’s home for several days.
According to him, investigators are currently focusing on the possibility of a murder motivated by a “personal grudge” linked to the victim’s activities, but are not ruling out a “commissioned assassination” either.
The 60-year-old language teacher and linguist was a member of parliament for the nationalist Svoboda party between 2012 and 2014.
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Sylvie Claire / July 18, 2024
At least six people died in a shopping mall fire on Wednesday in Zigong, southwest China, and thirty others were rescued, China’s state broadcaster CCTV said. “Rescue teams are continuing their search,” the media outlet added.
Images broadcast by the channel and others shared on social networks show thick black smoke rising from a building overlooking a shopping street in this city 1,600 kilometers from the capital Beijing, in the southwestern province of Sichuan.
The fire broke out in the early evening in a shopping mall at the foot of a 14-storey building, CCTV reported.
“At 8:20 pm, the fire was extinguished and 17 people were rescued. Others are still trapped, and rescue operations are continuing”, said the station in an initial report on the situation.
Fires and other fatal accidents are frequent in China, due to the sometimes lax application of safety standards. In January, at least 39 people perished in a store fire in central China. According to the authorities, the fire started in the basement of a store when workers “broke the rules” during construction work. At the time, Chinese President Xi Jinping called for lessons to be learned from the disaster to prevent further tragedies. The same month, a fire in a residential building claimed at least 15 lives.
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