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US

Election denier Lake loses governor’s race in battleground Arizona

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Nov 14 (Reuters) – Kari Lake, one of the most high-profile Republican candidates in the midterm elections to embrace former President Donald Trump’s false claims of voter fraud in 2020, lost her bid to become the next governor of Arizona, Edison Research projected on Monday.

The closely fought governor’s race between Lake and Democrat Katie Hobbs was one of the most significant in the general election because Arizona is a battleground state and will likely play a pivotal role in the 2024 U.S. presidential election.

Lake’s loss is the latest defeat for a series of candidates endorsed by Trump, who on Tuesday is expected to announce another White House bid.

After the Arizona governor race was called, Hobbs wrote on Twitter: “Democracy is worth the wait.” Lake expressed disdain for the election calls, tweeting that “Arizonans know BS when they see it.”

Lake had vowed to ban the state’s mail-in voting, which conspiracy theorists falsely claim is vulnerable to fraud, fueling distrust among voters about the safety of a voting method used by hundreds of thousands of Americans.

Her defeat capped a triumphant week for Democrats, who defied Republicans’ hopes for a “red wave” in the midterm elections.

Democrats retained their control of the U.S. Senate after keeping seats in the swing states of Arizona and Nevada, with Vice President Kamala Harris holding the tie-breaking vote. The party could win outright majority control if Democratic Senator Raphael Warnock beats Republican challenger Herschel Walker in a Georgia runoff on Dec. 6, bolstering Democratic sway over committees, bills and judicial picks.

The Democratic victories in a swath of gubernatorial, congressional and statehouse elections defied expectations that voters would punish them for record inflation, including high gas and food prices. Instead, Democrats were able to curb their losses, in part by mobilizing voters angry over the U.S. Supreme Court decision to overturn the constitutional right to abortion.

Still, Republicans continued to edge toward control of the House of Representatives. As of Monday, Republicans had won 214 seats and the Democrats 207, with 218 needed for a majority. Control of the House would allow Republicans to stymie President Joe Biden’s legislative agenda.

It could take several days before the outcome of enough House races is known to determine which party will control the 435-seat chamber.

Lake, a former television news anchor, was one of a string of Trump-aligned Republican candidates who lost battleground state races. Voters in Pennsylvania, Michigan and Wisconsin also rejected election deniers in races for governor and other statewide election posts.

Biden narrowly beat Trump in Arizona in the 2020 election. Hobbs, Arizona’s current secretary of state, rose to national prominence when she defended the state’s election results against Trump’s claims of voter fraud.

On Monday, she won the seat currently held by Republican Governor Doug Ducey, who could not seek re-election because of term limits.

Vote-counting in Arizona continued for nearly a week after the Nov. 8 election. Arizona requires voters’ signatures on early ballots to be verified before they are processed. The counting was delayed this year because hundreds of thousands of early ballots were cast at drop boxes on Election Day, officials said.

Lake and Trump had pointed to temporary Election Day problems with electronic vote-counting machines in Maricopa County as evidence that Republican votes were being suppressed.

A judge denied a request to extend polling place hours, saying Republicans had provided no evidence that voters were disenfranchised by the issue.

In a Sunday appearance on Fox News, Lake said the lengthy counting process was “trampling” voters’ rights, and was further evidence of why election administration in Arizona needed to be reformed.

“We can’t be the laughing stock of elections any more here in Arizona, and when I’m governor, I will not allow it,” she said.

Reporting by Julia Harte and Brad Brooks; Editing by Colleen Jenkins, Alistair Bell and Edmund Klamann

Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

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Business

Google to pay nearly $400 million to settle U.S. location-tracking probe

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WASHINGTON, Nov 14 (Reuters) – Alphabet’s Google (GOOGL.O) will pay $391.5 million to settle allegations by 40 states that the search and advertising giant illegally tracked users’ locations, the Michigan attorney general’s office said Monday.

The investigation and settlement, which was led by Oregon and Nebraska, is a sign of mounting legal headaches for the tech giant from state attorneys general who have aggressively targeted the firm’s user tracking practices in recent months.

In addition to the payment, Google must be more transparent with consumers about when location tracking is occurring and give users detailed information about location-tracking data on a special web page, the Iowa attorney general’s office said.

“When consumers make the decision to not share location data on their devices, they should be able to trust that a company will no longer track their every move,” Iowa Attorney General Tom Miller said in a statement. “This settlement makes it clear that companies must be transparent in how they track customers and abide by state and federal privacy laws.”

Google spokesperson Jose Castaneda said: “Consistent with improvements we’ve made in recent years, we have settled this investigation, which was based on outdated product policies that we changed years ago.”

Google said in a blog post on Monday that it would be “making updates in the coming months to provide even greater controls and transparency over location data.”

Those changes include making it easier to delete location data. New users will have auto-delete controls that allow them to order Google to delete certain information when it hits a certain age.

The state attorneys opened a probe in 2018 following a report that Google recorded location data even when users instruct it not to. The probe found that Google had misled consumers about location-tracking practices since at least 2014, in violation of state consumer protection laws.

Arizona filed a similar case against Google and settled it for $85 million in October 2022.

Texas, Indiana, Washington State and the District of Columbia sued Google in January over what they called deceptive location-tracking practices that invade users’ privacy.

Google had revenue of $111 billion from advertising in the first half of this year, more than any other seller of online ads. A consumer’s location is key to helping an advertiser cut through the digital clutter to make the ad more relevant and grab the consumer’s attention.

Writing by Diane Bartz and Alexandra Alper; Editing by Anna Driver and Aurora Ellis

Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

Diane Bartz

Thomson Reuters

Focused on U.S. antitrust as well as corporate regulation and legislation, with experience involving covering war in Bosnia, elections in Mexico and Nicaragua, as well as stories from Brazil, Chile, Cuba, El Salvador, Nigeria and Peru.

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World

New China COVID rules spur concern as some cities halt routine tests

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  • Regular COVID testing no longer required in several cities
  • China eased various virus curbs last Friday
  • Communities worried over virus spread under relaxed rules
  • Major cities including Beijing report record cases for Nov 13

BEIJING, Nov 14 (Reuters) – Several Chinese cities began cutting routine community COVID-19 testing on Monday, days after China announced an easing of some of its heavy-handed coronavirus measures, sparking worry in some communities as nationwide cases continued to rise.

In the northern city of Shijiazhuang, some families expressed concern about exposing their children to the virus at school, giving excuses such as toothaches or earaches for their children’s absence, according to social media posts following a state media report that testing in the city would end.

Other cities, including Yanji in the northeast and Hefei in the east, also said they will stop routine community COVID testing, according to official notices, halting a practice that has become a major fiscal burden for communities across China.

On Friday, the National Health Commission updated its COVID rules in the most significant easing of curbs yet, describing the changes as an “optimisation” of its measures to soften the impact on people’s lives, even as China sticks to its zero-COVID policy nearly three years into the pandemic.

The move, which cut quarantine times for close contacts of cases and inbound travellers by two days, to eight days total, was applauded by investors, even though many experts don’t expect China to begin significant easing until March or April at the earliest.

The changes come even as several major cities including Beijing logged record infections on Monday, posing a challenge for authorities scrambling to quell outbreaks quickly while trying to minimise the impact on people’s lives and the economy.

Some areas of Beijing are requiring daily tests.

The concern and confusion in Shijiazhuang was a top-five trending topic on the Twitter-like Weibo.

The city’s Communist Party chief, Zhang Chaochao, said its “optimisation” of prevention measures should not be seen as authorities “lying flat” – an expression for inaction – nor is Shijiazhuang moving towards “full liberation” from COVID curbs.

The city, about 295 kms (183 miles) southwest of Beijing, reported 544 infections for Sunday, only three of which it categorised as symptomatic.

“I’m a little scared. In the future, public places will not look at nucleic acid tests, and nucleic acid test points will also be closed, everyone needs to pay for the tests,” one Weibo user wrote, referring to Shijiazhuang.

Gavekal Research said in a Monday note that it was “curious timing” for China to relax its COVID policies: “The combination of an intensifying outbreak and loosening central requirements has led to debate over whether China is now gradually moving to a de facto policy of tolerating Covid,” it said.

FRESH RECORDS

Nationwide, 16,072 new locally transmitted cases were reported by the National Health Commission, up from 14,761 on Sunday and the most in China since April 25, when Shanghai was battling an outbreak that locked down the city for two months.

Beijing, Chongqing, Guangzhou and Zhengzhou all recorded their worst days so far, though in the capital city the tally was a few hundred cases, while the other cities were counting in thousands.

Case numbers are small compared with infection levels in other countries, but China’s insistence on clearing outbreaks as soon as they emerge under its zero-COVID policy has been widely disruptive to daily life and the economy.

Under the new rules unveiled on Friday, individuals, neighbourhoods and public spaces can still be subject to lockdowns, but the health commission relaxed some measures.

In addition to shortening quarantines, secondary close contacts are no longer identified and put into isolation – removing what had been a major inconvenience for people caught up in contact-tracing efforts when a case is found.

Despite the loosening of curbs, many experts described the measures as incremental, with some predicting that China is unlikely to begin reopening until after the March session of parliament, at the earliest.

Analysts at Goldman Sachs said on Monday that rising cases in cities including Guangzhou and Chongqing and the continuation of the zero-COVID policy pose downside near-term economic risks.

Reporting by Liz Lee, Jason Xue, Wang Jing and Ryan Woo; Editing by Simon Cameron-Moore, Tony Munroe and Emelia Sithole-Matarise

Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

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Business

UK economy shrinks at start of feared long recession

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  • GDP in Q3 -0.2% q/q vs Reuters poll -0.5%
  • Sept economic output -0.6% m/m vs poll -0.4%
  • GDP in July and August revised up
  • Economists still see UK going into recession
  • Finance minister predicts “tough road ahead”

LONDON, Nov 11 (Reuters) – Britain’s economy shrank in the three months to September at the start of what is likely to be a lengthy recession, underscoring the challenge for finance minister Jeremy Hunt as he prepares to raise taxes and cut spending next week.

Economic output shrank by 0.2% in the third quarter, less than the 0.5% contraction analysts had forecast in a Reuters poll, Friday’s official data showed.

But it was the first fall in gross domestic product since the start of 2021, when Britain was still under tight coronavirus restrictions, as households and businesses struggle with a severe cost-of-living crisis.

Britain’s economy is now further below its pre-pandemic size – it is the only Group of Seven economy yet to recover fully from the COVID slump – and is smaller than it was three years ago on a calendar-quarter basis.

The Resolution Foundation think tank said that although the fall was smaller than investors had feared, it left Britain on course for its fastest return to recession since the mid-1970s.

Its research director James Smith said the figures provided a sobering backdrop for Hunt’s Nov. 17 budget announcement, when he will try to convince investors that Britain can fix its public finances – and its credibility on economic policy – after Liz Truss’s brief spell as prime minister.

“The Chancellor will need to strike a balance between putting the public finances on a sustainable footing, without making the cost-of-living crisis even worse, or hitting already stretched public services,” Smith said.

Responding to the data, Hunt repeated his warnings that tough decisions on tax and spending would be needed.

“I am under no illusion that there is a tough road ahead – one which will require extremely difficult decisions to restore confidence and economic stability,” Hunt said in a statement.

People walk across Millennium Bridge with the City of London financial district seen behind, amid the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic, in London, Britain, January 20, 2021. REUTERS/Hannah McKay

“But to achieve long-term, sustainable growth, we need to grip inflation, balance the books and get debt falling,” he added. “There is no other way.”

RECESSION REALITY

The Bank of England said last week that Britain’s economy was set to go into a recession that would last two years if interest rates were to rise as much as investors had been pricing.

Even without further rate hikes, the economy would shrink in five of the six quarters until the end of 2023, it said.

“Fears of a recession are turning into reality,” Suren Thiru, economics director for the Institute of Chartered Accountants in England and Wales, said.

“This fall in output is the start of a punishing period as higher inflation, energy bills and interest rates clobber incomes, pushing us into a technical recession from the end of this year.”

In September alone, when the funeral of Queen Elizabeth was marked with a one-off public holiday that shut many businesses, Britain’s economy shrank by 0.6%, the Office for National Statistics said. That was a bigger monthly fall than a median forecast for a 0.4% contraction in the Reuters poll and the largest since January 2021, when there was a COVID-19 lockdown.

But gross domestic product data for August was revised to show a marginal 0.1% contraction compared with an original reading of a 0.3% shrinkage, and GDP in July was now seen as having grown by 0.3%, up from a previous estimate of 0.1%.

The upward revisions to July and August’s GDP data mostly reflected new, quarterly figures on health and education output, alongside some stronger readings from the professional and scientific and wholesale and retail sectors, the ONS said.

Reporting by William Schomberg and David Milliken; Editing by Kate Holton and Catherine Evans

Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

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World

China’s COVID epicentre shifts to Guangzhou as outbreaks widen

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  • Southern manufacturing hub fighting worst COVID-19 flare-up
  • Cases double in Zhengzhou, production base for Apple supplier
  • Chinese stocks, currency slip over virus fears

BEIJING, Nov 8 (Reuters) – New coronavirus cases surged in Guangzhou and other Chinese cities, official data showed on Tuesday, with the global manufacturing hub becoming China’s latest COVID-19 epicentre and testing the city’s ability to avoid a Shanghai-style lockdown.

Nationwide, new locally transmitted infections climbed to 7,475 on Nov. 7, according to China’s health authority, up from 5,496 the day before and the highest since May 1. Guangzhou accounted for nearly a third of the new infections.

The increase was modest by global standards but significant for China, where outbreaks are to be quickly tackled when they surface under its zero-COVID policy. Economically vital cities, including the capital Beijing, are demanding more PCR tests for residents and locking down neighbourhoods and even districts in some cases.

The sharp rebound will test China’s ability to keep its COVID measures surgical and targeted, and could dampen investors’ hopes that the world’s second-largest economy could ease curbs and restrictions soon.

“We are seeing a game between rising voices for loosening controls and rapid spreading of COVID cases,” said Nie Wen, a Shanghai-based economist at Hwabao Trust.

Considering how the nationwide COVID curbs are crushing domestic consumption, Nie said he had downgraded his fourth-quarter economic growth forecast to around 3.5% from 4%-4.5%. The economy grew 3.9% in July-September.

The rising case load dragged on China’s stock markets on Tuesday, but shares have not yet surrendered last week’s big gains.

Investors see China’s beaten-down markets as an attractive prospect as a global slowdown looms, and have focused on small clues of gradual change – such as more targeted lockdowns and progress on vaccination rates.

“No matter how harsh the letter of the law is…there is a little bit more loosening,” said Damien Boey, chief macro strategist at Australian investment bank Barrenjoey.

NO FULL LOCKDOWN YET

Guangzhou, capital of Guangdong province, reported 2,377 new local cases for Nov. 7, up from 1,971 the previous day. It was a dramatic jump from double-digit increases two weeks ago.

Surging case numbers in the sprawling southern city, dubbed the “factory floor of the world”, means Guangzhou has surpassed the northern Inner Mongolia city of Hohhot to become China’s COVID epicentre, in its most serious outbreak ever.

Many of Guangzhou’s districts, including central Haizhu, have imposed varying levels of curbs and lockdowns. But, so far, the city has not imposed a blanket lockdown like the one in Shanghai earlier this year.

Shanghai, currently not facing a COVID resurgence, went into a lockdown in April and May after reporting several thousand new infections daily in the last week of March.

“We have been working from home for the past couple of days,” said Aaron Xu, who runs a company in Guangzhou.

“Only a few compounds have been locked up so far. Mostly we are seeing disruptions in the form of public transit services being suspended and compound security barring couriers and food delivery. And we have to do PCR tests every day.”

RISING CASES

In Beijing, authorities detected 64 new local infections, a small uptick relative to Guangzhou and Zhengzhou, but enough to spark a new burst of PCR tests for many of its residents and a lockdown of more buildings and neighbourhoods.

“The lockdown situation has continued to deteriorate quickly across the country over the past week, with our in-house China COVID lockdown index rising to 12.2% of China’s total GDP from 9.5% last Monday,” Nomura wrote in a note on Monday.

Zhengzhou, capital of central Henan province and a major production base for Apple (AAPL.O) supplier Foxconn (2317.TW), reported 733 new local cases for Nov. 7, more than doubling from a day earlier.

In the southwest metropolis of Chongqing, the city reported 281 new local cases, also more than doubling from 120 a day earlier.

In the coal-producing region of Inner Mongolia, the city of Hohhot reported 1,760 new local cases for Nov. 7, up from 1,013 a day earlier.

Reporting by Ryan Woo, Bernard Orr, Liz Lee and Jing Wang; Additional reporting by Josh Ye in Hong Kong and Tom Westbrook in Singapore; Editing by Raju Gopalakrishnan, Stephen Coates and Raissa Kasolowsky

Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

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Business

Apple warns of lower iPhone shipments as COVID curbs hobble China plant

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  • Apple expects lower shipments of iPhone 14 Pro and Pro Max
  • Apple says a China plant operating at sharply reduced capacity
  • Apple supplier Foxconn revises down Q4 outlook

TAIPEI, Nov 7 (Reuters) – Apple Inc (AAPL.O) expects lower shipments of premium iPhone 14 models than previously anticipated following a significant production cut at a virus-blighted plant in China, dampening its sales outlook for the busy year-end holiday season.

Demand for high-end smartphones assembled at Foxconn’s (2317.TW) Zhengzhou plant has helped Apple remain a bright spot in a technology sector battered by consumer spending cutbacks amid surging inflation and interest rates.

But the Cupertino, California-based vendor has fallen victim to China’s zero-COVID-19 policy, which has seen global firms including Canada Goose Holdings Inc (GOOS.TO), and Estee Lauder Companies Inc (EL.N) shut local stores and cut forecasts.

“The facility is currently operating at significantly reduced capacity,” Apple said on Sunday without detailing the scale of the reduction.

“We continue to see strong demand for iPhone 14 Pro and iPhone 14 Pro Max models. However, we now expect lower iPhone 14 Pro and iPhone 14 Pro Max shipments than we previously anticipated,” it said in a statement.

Reuters last month reported that iPhone output could slump as much as 30% in November at Foxconn’s Zhengzhou factory – one of the world’s biggest – due to COVID-19 restrictions.

The factory in central China, which employs about 200,000 people, has been rocked by discontent over stringent measures to curb the spread of COVID-19, with many workers fleeing the site.

Market researcher TrendForce last week cut its iPhone shipment forecast for October-December by 2 million to 3 million units, from 80 million, due to the factory’s troubles, adding its investigation found capacity utilisation rates around 70%.

Apple, which began selling its iPhone 14 range in September, said customers should expect longer waiting times.

“Anything that affects Apple’s production obviously affects their share price,” said Quincy Krosby, chief global strategist at LPL Financial in Charlotte, North Carolina.

“But this is part of a much deeper story – the uncertainty surrounding the future of the Chinese economy… These headlines are part of the ongoing saga as to whether there is any truth to the consistent rumours that authorities are discussing whether some of the measures will be lifted in the first quarter.”

China on Monday reported its highest number of new COVID-19 infections in six months, with disruption to the world’s second-largest economy spreading nationwide since October. At the weekend, health officials said they would stick with strict coronavirus curbs, disappointing investors hoping for easing.

Meanwhile, Apple expects to produce at least 3 million fewer iPhone 14 handsets this year than planned due to weak demand for lower-end models, Bloomberg News reported on Monday, citing people familiar with the plan.

The world’s most valuable firm, with a market capitalisation of $2.2 trillion, last month forecast October-December revenue growth would slow from the previous quarter’s 8% – though market watchers regarded that favourably in a battered sector.

“Given that Apple reported only two weeks ago with positive guidance, we think this points to the potential for a longer and more severe lockdown,” Credit Suisse analysts said, expecting iPhone sales to be pushed to later quarters than lost.

They estimated Apple’s revenue to rise 3% in the current quarter, with iPhone sales growing 2% to $73 billion.

Reuters Graphics

FOXCONN CUTS OUTLOOK

Taiwan’s Foxconn is the world’s largest contract electronics manufacturer and Apple’s biggest iPhone maker, accounting for 70% of shipments globally. It has iPhone production sites in India and southern China, but its biggest is in the city of Zhengzhou in the eastern Chinese province of Henan.

Local officials recently commented on cases of COVID-19 at the plant. Foxconn has declined to disclose the number of infections or comment on the conditions of those infected.

On Monday, it said it was working to resume full production at Zhengzhou as soon as possible. A person familiar with the matter told Reuters that Foxconn’s target is by the second half of November.

At the request of the local government, Foxconn said it would implement measures to curb the spread of COVID-19, including restricting employee movement to between their dormitory and factory area.

The manufacturer has also began a recruitment drive, offering workers who left the plant during Oct. 10 to Nov. 5 a one-off bonus of 500 yuan ($69) if they returned. It also advertised salaries of 30 yuan an hour, higher than the 17 to 23 yuan base salaries that some workers told Reuters they received.

The Zhengzhou Airport Economy Zone, which houses the iPhone factory, entered a seven-day lockdown on Wednesday with measures included barring residents from going out and only allowing access to approved vehicles. read more

Foxconn said the provincial government “has made it clear that it will, as always, fully support Foxconn”.

“Foxconn is now working with the government in concerted effort to stamp out the pandemic and resume production to its full capacity as quickly as possible.”

Having previously expressed “cautious optimism” in its fourth-quarter earnings guidance, Foxconn on Monday said it will “revise down” its outlook given events in Zhengzhou.

The fourth quarter is traditionally a hot season for Taiwanese technology companies as they race to supply smartphones, tablet computers and other electronics for the year-end holiday shopping period in Western markets.
Foxconn releases its third-quarter earnings results on Nov. 10.

The firm, formally Hon Hai Precision Industry Co Ltd, saw its share price fall 0.5% in Monday trade, versus a 1.5% rise in the benchmark index (.TWII).

($1 = 7.2135 Chinese yuan renminbi)

Reporting by Ben Blanchard and Sarah Wu in Taipei, Caroline Valetkevitch in New York and Jaiveer Shekhawat in Bengaluru; Additional reporting by Brenda Goh; Writing by Miyoung Kim; Editing by Daniel Wallis and Christopher Cushing

Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

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US

Brittney Griner faces bleak life in Russian penal colony

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  • Griner faces penal colony after losing drugs appeal
  • In Russian system, inmates made to work long hours for scant pay
  • Threat of harsh punishment for breaking trivial rules
  • Language barrier makes ordeal even harder for foreigners

LONDON, Nov 3, (Reuters) – Tedious manual work, poor hygiene and lack of access to medical care – such are the conditions awaiting U.S. basketball star Brittney Griner in a Russian penal colony after she lost her appeal last week against a nine-year drug sentence.

It’s a world familiar to Maria Alyokhina, a member of feminist art ensemble Pussy Riot who spent nearly two years as an inmate for her part in a 2012 punk protest in a Moscow cathedral against President Vladimir Putin.

The first thing to understand, Alyokhina said in an interview, is that a penal colony is no ordinary prison.

“This is not a building with cells. This looks like a strange village, like a Gulag labour camp,” she said, referring to the vast penal network established by Soviet dictator Josef Stalin to isolate and crush inmates.

“It actually is a labour camp because by law all the prisoners should work. The quite cynical thing about this work is that prisoners usually sew police uniforms and uniforms for the Russian army, almost without salary.”

The colony was divided between a factory area where the prisoners made garments and gloves and a “living zone” where Alyokhina said 80 women lived in one room with just three toilets and no hot water.

Griner, a two-time Olympic gold medallist, could soon be transferred to a colony in the absence of a further appeal or an agreement between Washington and Moscow to swap her for a Russian arms dealer jailed in the United States – a possibility that was floated months ago but has yet to materialise.

HARSH RULES

In a Pussy Riot show that has toured the world and is now playing in Britain, Alyokhina relives the memories of her time as an inmate – snowy prison yards, plank-like beds, long spells in solitary confinement and punishment for minor infringements such as an unbuttoned coat or poorly attached nametag.

She was constantly being videoed by prison guards “because I am a ‘famous provocateur’,” she added.

Russia’s prison service did not reply to a request for comment for this article.

A more recent penal colony detainee, Yelena, described a similar regime to that experienced by Alyokhina a decade ago.

Yelena, 34, served eight years in a Siberian colony after being convicted for possession of drugs. She said she was paid about 1,000 roubles ($16) a month for toiling 10-12 hours a day in a sewing workshop.

“Girls with a strong, athletic build are often given much heavier jobs. For example, they load sacks of flour for a prison bakery or unload mountains of coal,” she said.

[1/4] U.S. basketball player Brittney Griner appears on a screen via video link from the detention centre during a court hearing to consider an appeal against her prison sentence, in Krasnogorsk, Moscow Region, Russia October 25, 2022. REUTERS/Evgenia Novozhenina

Prisoners could face punishment for inexplicable “offences” such as placing a wristwatch on a bedside table. The ultimate sanction was solitary confinement, known as “the Vatican”.

“Just as the Vatican is a state within a state, solitary confinement is a prison within a prison,” Yelena said.

A gynaecologist paid a monthly visit to her colony, where more than 800 women were imprisoned.

“You do the math, what are the chances of being the one to get through to a doctor? Practically zero,” she said.

LANGUAGE BARRIER

For a foreigner with little or no Russian, it’s harder to navigate the system and deal with the isolation.

The brother of Paul Whelan, a former U.S. Marine serving 16 years in a Russian penal colony on espionage charges that he denies, said he is granted a 15-minute phone call each day to his parents, cannot call other family members or friends, and has no access to email or the internet.

David Whelan said his brother must work at least eight hours a day, six days a week, on menial tasks like making buttonholes, which has caused him repetitive strain injury.

Inmates sleep in barrack-like buildings and access to many necessities, including medicine, depends on paying bribes to prison guards, he said. Conditions can depend heavily on the whims of guards, the warden or elder inmates.

Paul seems to use his military training “to get through just day to day, to figure out what battles to fight and which battles not to fight”, David Whelan said.

“His phone calls even to our parents are recorded. His letters were all translated before they went out. So you know that everything you do is being watched and you really have no sense of individuality.”

Alyokhina said receiving cards and letters from the outside world offered a rare ray of hope, and she urged people to support Griner that way.

She said they should use a machine translation and send the text in both English and Russian to get it more easily past the prison censor.

“Do not leave someone alone with this system,” she said. “It’s totally inhuman, it’s a Gulag, and when you feel yourself alone there, it’s much easier to give up.”

Reporting by Mark Trevelyan in London, Filipp Lebedev in Tbilisi and Simon Lewis in Washington; additional reporting by Caleb Davis and Humeyra Pamuk
Editing by Gareth Jones

Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

Mark Trevelyan

Thomson Reuters

Chief writer on Russia and CIS. Worked as a journalist on 7 continents and reported from 40+ countries, with postings in London, Wellington, Brussels, Warsaw, Moscow and Berlin. Covered the break-up of the Soviet Union in the 1990s. Security correspondent from 2003 to 2008. Speaks French, Russian and (rusty) German and Polish.

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World

Ousted Pakistan PM Imran Khan shot in shin in what aides call assassination attempt

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  • Former cricketer Imran Khan shot in the shin
  • Was leading march on Islamabad to demand snap elections
  • ‘It was a clear assassination attempt,’ says aide
  • Pakistan has long history of political violence
  • White House condemns attack on Khan

LAHORE, Nov 3 (Reuters) – Former Pakistan Prime Minister Imran Khan was shot in the shin on Thursday when his anti-government protest convoy came under attack in the east of the country in what his aides said was a clear assassination attempt by his rivals.

Khan, ousted as prime minister in a parliamentary confidence vote in April, was six days into a protest procession bound for Islamabad, standing and waving to thousands of cheering supporters from the roof of a container truck, when the shots rang out.

Several in his convoy were wounded in the attack in Wazirabad, nearly 200 km (120 miles) from the capital. Information Minister Marriyum Aurangzeb said a suspect had been arrested.

“It was a clear assassination attempt. Khan was hit but he’s stable. There was a lot of bleeding,” Fawad Chaudhry, a spokesperson for Khan’s Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) party, told Reuters.

“If the shooter had not been stopped by people there, the entire PTI leadership would have been wiped out.”

Khan was out of danger, said physician Faisal Sultan, who is also the head of the Lahore hospital where the former premier was being treated. He told journalists that initial scans and x-rays showed bullet fragments in Khan’s leg.

Police have yet to comment on the attack, which drew condemnation from the White House.

In a video statement, Asad Umar, one of Khan’s top aides, said Khan believed that Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif, Interior Minister Rana Sanaullah and intelligence official Major-General Faisal Naseer were behind the attack. Umar did not provide any evidence to back the allegation.

Sanaullah, speaking to journalists alongside Aurangzeb, rejected the allegations and said the Sharif-led coalition government demanded an independent high-powered investigation. Sharif also condemned the shooting and ordered an immediate investigation.

The military’s media wing did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the allegation against Naseer.

In a previous statement, the military called the shooting “highly condemnable”. Khan, 70, had accused the military of backing the plan to oust him from power. Last week, the military held a news conference to deny the claims.

Pervaiz Elahi, the chief minister of Punjab, the province in which Khan’s party is in power and where the shooting occurred, said he was forming a joint investigation team. Elahi said that it initially appeared that there were two assailants.

“I heard a burst of bullet shots after which I saw Imran Khan and his aides fall down on the truck,” witness Qazzafi Butt told Reuters.

“Later, a gunman shot a single shot but was grabbed by an activist of Khan’s party.”

In purported footage of the shooting, being run by multiple channels but unverified by Reuters, a man with a handgun is grabbed from behind by one of the people at the gathering. He then tries to flee.

TV channels showed a suspected shooter, who looked to be in his twenties or thirties. He said he wanted to kill Khan and had acted alone.

[1/6] Former Pakistani Prime Minister Imran Khan is helped after he was shot in the shin in Wazirabad, Pakistan November 3, 2022 in this still image obtained from video. Urdu Media via REUTERS

“He (Khan) was misleading the people, and I couldn’t bear it,” the suspect said in the video. The information minister confirmed the footage was recorded by police.

No one has yet been charged with the attack.

Khan, who after his removal from office was convicted by Pakistan’s election commission of selling state gifts unlawfully, charges that he denied, had been whipping up large crowds on his way to Islamabad in a campaign to topple Sharif’s government.

One member of Khan’s party said there were reports one person had been killed in the attack.

PROTESTERS ON STREETS

Handsome and charismatic, Khan first grabbed international attention as a cricketer in the early 1970s.

First known as an aggressive fast-paced bowler with a distinctive leaping action, he went on to become one of the world’s best all-rounders and a hero in cricket-mad Pakistan, captaining a team of wayward stars with bleak prospects to one-day World Cup victory in 1992.

His first wife, Jemima Goldsmith, who lives in Britain, expressed relief that Khan was not in danger on Twitter.

“The news we dread … Thank God he’s okay,” she wrote. “And thank you from his sons to the heroic man in the crowd who tackled the gunman.”

Pakistan has a long history of political violence. Former Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto was assassinated in December 2007 in a gun and bomb attack after holding an election rally in the city of Rawalpindi, next to Islamabad.

Her father and former prime minister Zulfikar Ali Bhutto was hanged in the same city in 1979 after being deposed in a military coup.

Local media on Thursday showed footage of Khan waving to the crowd after being evacuated from his vehicle after the shooting as people ran and shouted.

He was taken to hospital as protesters poured out on to streets in some parts of the country and PTI leaders demanded justice.

PTI colleague Faisal Javed, who was also wounded and had blood stains on his clothes, told Geo TV from the hospital: “Several of our colleagues are wounded. We heard that one of them is dead.”

Since being ousted, Khan has held rallies across Pakistan, stirring opposition against a government that is struggling to bring the economy out of the crisis that Khan’s administration left it in.

He had planned to lead the motorised caravan slowly north up the Grand Trunk Road to Islamabad, drawing more support along the way before entering the capital.

Additional reporting by Aftab Ahmed, Sudipto Ganguly and Tanvi Mehta; Writing by Krishna N. Das; Editing by John Stonestreet and Nick Macfie

Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

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Business

Fearing COVID, workers flee from Foxconn’s vast Chinese iPhone plant

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BEIJING, Oct 31 (Reuters) – After enduring days of lock-in at Foxconn’s vast facility in central China with 200,000 other workers, Yuan finally climbed the fences on Saturday night and escaped the complex, joining others fleeing what they feared was a widening COVID outbreak.

He walked through the night, keeping to a northerly route, towards his hometown of Hebi, every step taking him farther away from iPhone maker Foxconn’s (2317.TW) Zhengzhou plant, the Taiwan-based group’s largest in mainland China.

“There were so many people on the road,” Yuan told Reuters on Monday, declining to give his full name because of the matter’s sensitivity.

Since mid-October, Foxconn has been wrestling with a COVID-19 outbreak at its facility in Zhengzhou, the capital of Henan province in central China. Workers were locked in to stop the spread of the coronavirus to the outside word. Foxconn has repeatedly refrained from disclosing the case load.

“We were shut in on Oct. 14, and we had to do endless PCR tests, and after about 10 days, we had to wear N95 masks, and were given traditional Chinese medicine,” said Yuan.

Whenever a positive or suspected case was found at a production line, there would be a public broadcast, but work would continue, he told Reuters.

“People would be called away in the middle of work, and if they don’t show up the next day, that would mean they had been taken away,” Yuan said.

Around 20,000 workers had been put in quarantine on-site, Yuan had heard, but he could not be sure how many were infected, as management did not publicise that information.

China typically isolates vast numbers of people considered close or even potential contacts of an infected person.

The world’s second-largest economy continues to wage war on COVID with disruptive lockdowns, mass testing and quarantines while many other countries have chosen to live with the disease. read more

For companies with massive manufacturing campuses like Foxconn, that has meant keeping thousands of workers on-site in so-called “closed-loop” systems to keep their production lines running.

“Food for tens of thousands was merely left outside (of the quarantine buildings at the plant),” said a worker surnamed Li, 21.

Li, who is still at the plant, said she was planning to quit.

In a statement on Monday, Apple (AAPL.O) supplier Foxconn said that reports that 20,000 staff had been diagnosed with COVID were false.

On Sunday afternoon, the company told Reuters in an emailed statement that workers were allowed to leave if they chose to. read more

Foxconn did not immediately respond to a Reuters request on Monday for further comment.

‘NEVER GO BACK’

Disruptions from China’s zero-COVID policies to commerce and industry have widened in October as cases escalated. Apart from the Foxconn lockdown, the Shanghai Disney Resort was shut from Monday to comply with counter-epidemic requirements, with visitors still inside.

For Yuan, matters came to a head when he heard that a housing complex for workers near his plant had been cordoned off by security on Friday, and that the plant itself was to go under a curfew the next day.

In a panic, Yuan decided to leave the next day, joining streams of other escaping workers. It was not immediately clear if a curfew was eventually imposed.

By Sunday morning, Yuan had hiked to the banks of the Yellow River, the northern boundary of Zhengzhou, where he was stopped 50 km (30 miles) short of Hebi by authorities from the city of Xinxiang on the other side.

“I’ll never go back to Foxconn,” said Yuan, who has since been transported to Hebi and put under quarantine.

“Zhengzhou has put a chill in my heart.”

Reporting by Ryan Woo; Additional reporting by Beijing newsroom and Ziyi Tang; Editing by Christian Schmollinger

Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

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World

Lula wins Brazil election in political resurrection for leftist

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SAO PAULO/BRASILIA, Oct 31 (Reuters) – Brazilian leftist leader Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva narrowly defeated President Jair Bolsonaro in a runoff election, but the far right incumbent had not conceded defeat by Monday morning, raising concerns he might contest the result.

Tens of thousands of jubilant supporters took to the streets of Sao Paulo to celebrate a stunning comeback for the 77-year-old former metalworker who, following his previous two-term 2003-2010 presidency, served prison time for corruption convictions that were later annulled.

Bolsonaro is the first Brazilian incumbent to lose a presidential election and Lula has vowed to overturn his legacy, including pro-gun policies and weak protection of the Amazon rainforest.

Pitching the contest as a battle for democracy after his rival made baseless claims the electoral system was open to fraud, Lula called the election a sign Brazilians “want more and not less democracy,” in a victory speech that celebrated what he called his “resurrection.” He promised to unite a deeply divided country.

“I will govern for 215 million Brazilians, and not just for those who voted for me,” Lula said at his campaign headquarters. “There are not two Brazils. We are one country, one people, one great nation.”

The Supreme Electoral Court (TSE) declared Lula won 50.9% of votes, against 49.1% for Bolsonaro. Lula’s inauguration is scheduled for Jan. 1.

Brazil Election Lula wins Brazilian election

The result in Latin America’s largest nation means the left will govern all the region’s major economies after a string of electoral successes from Mexico to Argentina in recent years.

A source in the Bolsonaro campaign told Reuters the president would not make public remarks until Monday. The Bolsonaro campaign did not respond to a request for comment.

“So far, Bolsonaro has not called me to recognize my victory, and I don’t know if he will call or if he will recognize my victory,” Lula told supporters on Sao Paulo’s Paulista Avenue.

In contrast to Bolsonaro’s silence, congratulations for Lula poured in from foreign leaders, including U.S. President Joe Biden, Russian President Vladimir Putin, German Chancellor Olaf Scholz and French President Emmanuel Macron.

[1/6] Brazil’s former President and presidential candidate Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva reacts at an election night gathering on the day of the Brazilian presidential election run-off, in Sao Paulo, Brazil, October 30, 2022. REUTERS/Mariana Grei

Biden congratulated Lula for winning “free, fair and credible elections,” joining the chorus of compliments from European and Latin American leaders.

Markets braced for a volatile week ahead, with Brazil’s real currency and international listings of Brazilian stocks falling as investors gauged speculation about Lula’s cabinet and the risk of Bolsonaro questioning results.

One close Bolsonaro ally, lawmaker Carla Zambelli, in an apparent nod to the results, wrote on Twitter, “I PROMISE you, I will be the greatest opposition that Lula has ever imagined.”

The vote was a rebuke for the fiery far-right populism of Bolsonaro, who emerged from the back benches of Congress to forge a conservative coalition but lost support as Brazil ran up one of the worst death tolls of the coronavirus pandemic.

International election observers said Sunday’s election was conducted efficiently. One observer told Reuters that military auditors did not find any flaws in integrity tests they did of the voting system.

Truck drivers believed to be Bolsonaro supporters on Sunday blocked a highway in four places in the state of Mato Grosso, a major grains producer, according to the highway operator.

In one video circulating online, a man said truckers planned to block main highways, calling for a military coup to prevent Lula from taking office.

PINK TIDE RISING

Lula’s win consolidates a new “pink tide” in Latin America, after landmark leftist victories in Colombia and Chile’s elections, echoing a regional political shift two decades ago that introduced Lula to the world stage.

He has vowed a return to state-driven economic growth and social policies that helped lift millions out of poverty during two terms as president from 2003 to 2010. He also promises to combat destruction of the Amazon rainforest, now at a 15-year high, and make Brazil a leader in global climate talks.

“These were four years of hatred, of negation of science,” Ana Valeria Doria, 60, a doctor in Rio de Janeiro who celebrated with a drink. “It won’t be easy for Lula to manage the division in this country. But for now it’s pure happiness.”
A former union leader born into poverty, Lula’s two-term presidency was marked by a commodity-driven economic boom and he left office with record popularity.

However, his Workers Party was later tarred by a deep recession and a record-breaking corruption scandal that jailed him for 19 months on bribery convictions, which were overturned by the Supreme Court last year.

Reporting by Anthony Boadle and Ricardo Brito in Brasilia, Brian Ellsworth and Lisandra Paraguassu in Sao Paulo; Writing by Frank Jack Daniel, Editing by Brad Haynes, Lincoln Feast, Nick Macfie and Angus MacSwan

Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

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