China crushes mass protest by bank depositors demanding their life savings back

By Nectar Gan, CNN

Mon July 11, 2022


Hong Kong (CNN)

Chinese authorities on Sunday violently dispersed a peaceful protest by hundreds of depositors, who sought in vain to demand their life savings back from banks that have run into a deepening cash crisis.

Since April, four rural banks in China's central Henan province have frozen millions of dollars worth of deposits, threatening the livelihoods of hundreds of thousands of customers in an economy already battered by draconian Covid lockdowns.

Anguished depositors have staged several demonstrations in the city of Zhengzhou, the provincial capital of Henan, over the past two months, but their demands have invariably fallen on deaf ears.
On Sunday, more than 1,000 depositors from across China gathered outside the Zhengzhou branch of the country's central bank, the People's Bank of China, to launch their largest protest yet, more than half a dozen protesters told CNN.

The demonstration is among the largest China has seen since the pandemic, with domestic travel limited by various Covid restrictions on movement. Last month, Zhengzhou authorities even resorted to tampering with the country's digital Covid health-code system to restrict the movements of depositors and thwart their planned protest, sparking a nationwide outcry.

China's bank run victims planned to protest. Then their Covid health codes turned red

This time, most protesters arrived outside the bank before dawn -- some as early as 4 a.m. -- to avoid being intercepted by authorities. The crowd, which includes the elderly and children, occupied a flight of imposing stairs outside the bank, chanting slogans and holding up banners.
"Henan banks, return my savings!" they shouted in unison, many waving Chinese flags, in videos shared with CNN by two protesters.
Using national flags to display patriotism is a common strategy for protesters in China, where dissent is strictly suppressed. The tactic is meant to show that their grievances are only against local governments, and that they support and rely on the central government to seek redress.

"Against the corruption and violence of the Henan government," a banner written in English read.
A large portrait of late Chinese leader Mao Zedong was pasted on a pillar at the entrance of the bank.
Across the street, hundreds of police and security personnel -- some in uniforms and others in plain clothes -- assembled and surrounded the site, as protesters shouted "gangsters" at them.

A banner in Chinese reads: "400,000 depositors dashed their Chinese dream in Henan."

Violent crackdown

The face-off lasted for several hours until after 11 a.m., when rows of security officers suddenly charged up the stairs and clashed with protesters, who threw bottles and other small objects at them.

The scene quickly descended into chaos, as security officers dragged protesters down the stairs and beat those who resisted, including women and the elderly, according to witnesses and social media videos.

One woman from eastern Shandong province told CNN she was pushed to the ground by two security guards, who twisted and injured her arm. A 27-year-old man from the southern city of Shenzhen, surnamed Sun, said he was kicked by seven or eight guards on the ground before being carried away. A 45-year-old man from the central city of Wuhan said his shirt was completely torn at the back during the scuffle.

Many said they were shocked by the sudden burst of violence by the security forces.
"I did not expect them to be so violent and shameless this time. There was no communication, no warning before they brutally dispersed us," said one depositor from a metropolis outside Henan who had protested in Zhengzhou previously, and who requested CNN conceal his name due to security concerns.

"Why would government employees beat us up? We're only ordinary people asking for our deposits back, we did nothing wrong," the Shandong woman said.

Videos taken by witnesses at the scene show protesters being forcefully taken away by plain-clothes security agents.

The protesters were hurled onto dozens of buses and sent to makeshift detention sites across the city -- from hotels and schools to factories, according to people taken there. Some injured were escorted to hospitals; many were released from detention by the late afternoon, the people said.

CNN has reached out to the Henan provincial government for comment.
The Zhengzhou Business District Police Station -- which has jurisdiction over the protest site -- hung up on CNN's call requesting comment.
Late on Sunday night, the Henan banking regulator issued a terse statement, saying "relevant departments" were speeding up efforts to verify information on customer funds at the four rural banks.

"(Authorities) are coming up with a plan to deal with the issue, which will be announced in the near future," the statement said.
Police in Xuchang, a city neighboring Zhengzhou, said in a statement late Sunday they recently arrested members of an alleged "criminal gang," who were accused of effectively taking control over the Henan rural banks starting from 2011 -- by leveraging their shareholdings and "manipulating banks executives."
The suspects were also accused of illegally transferring funds through fictitious loans, the police said, adding that some of their funds and assets had been seized and frozen.


Shattered lives
The protest comes at a politically sensitive time for the ruling Communist Party, just months before its leader Xi Jinping is expected to seek an unprecedented third term at a key meeting this fall.
Large-scale demonstrations over lost savings and ruined livelihoods could be perceived as a political embarrassment for Xi, who has promoted a nationalistic vision of leading the country to "great rejuvenation."

Small banks in China are running into trouble. Savers could lose everything
Henan authorities are under tremendous pressure to stop the protests. But depositors remain undeterred. As the issue drags on, many have become ever more desperate to recover their savings.
Huang, the depositor from Wuhan, lost his job in the medical cosmetology industry this year, as businesses struggled in the pandemic. Yet he is unable to withdraw any of his life savings -- of over 500,000 yuan ($75,000) -- from a rural bank in Henan.
"Being unemployed, all I can live on is my past savings. But I can't even do that now -- how am I supposed to (support my family)?" said Huang, whose son is in high school.
Sun, from Shenzhen, is struggling to keep his machine factory from bankruptcy after losing his deposit of 4 million yuan ($597,000) to a Henan bank. He can't even pay his more than 40 employees without the funds.
Sun said he was covered in bruises and had a swollen lower back after being repeatedly stomped by security guards at the protest.
"The incident completely overturned my perception of the government. I've lived all my life placing so much faith in the government. After today, I'll never trust it again," he said.

CNN's Beijing bureau and Yong Xiong contributed to this report

Chinese bank depositors face police in angry protest
10 Jul, 2022 

People hold banners and chant slogans during a protest at the entrance to a branch of China's central bank in Zhengzhou in central China's Henan Province. Photo / AP
AP

A large crowd of angry Chinese bank depositors faced off with police on Sunday, some roughed up as they were taken away, in a case that has drawn attention because of earlier attempts to use a Covid-19 tracking app to prevent them from mobilising.

Hundreds of people held up banners and chanted slogans on the wide steps of the entrance to a branch of China's central bank in the city of Zhengzhou in Henan province, about 620km southwest of Beijing. Video taken by a protester shows plainclothes security teams being pelted with water bottles and other objects as they charge the crowd.

Later videos posted on social media show an unclear number of protesters being shoved forward individually and downstairs by security teams dressed in plain white or black T-shirts. Phone calls to Zhengzhou city and Henan province police rang unanswered.

The protesters are among thousands of customers who opened accounts at six rural banks in Henan and neighbouring Anhui province that offered higher interest rates. They later found they could not withdraw their funds after media reports that the head of the banks' parent company was on the run and wanted for financial crimes.

"We came today and wanted to get our savings back, because I have elderly people and children at home, and the inability to withdraw savings has seriously affected my life," said a woman from Shandong province, who only gave her last name, Zhang, out of fear of retribution.

What had been a local scandal became a national incident last month because of the misuse of the Covid 19 tracking app. Many who set out for Zhengzhou to demand action from regulators found that their health status on the app had turned red, preventing them from travelling. Some reported being questioned by police after checking into their hotel about why they had come to the city. Five Zhengzhou officials were later punished.

The protesters assembled before dawn on Sunday in front of the People's Bank of China building in Zhengzhou. Police vehicles with flashing lights can be seen in videos taken in the early morning darkness. Police closed off the street and by 8am had started massing on the other side, Zhang said.

A large crowd of angry Chinese bank depositors faced off with police Sunday, some reportedly injured as they were roughly taken away. Photo / AP

Besides uniformed police, there were the teams of men in plain T-shirts. A banking regulator and a local government official arrived, but their attempts to talk to the crowd were shouted down. Zhang and another protester, a man from Beijing surnamed Yang, told the AP the protesters had heard from the officials before and don't believe what they say. Yang declined to be identified by his full name, fearing pressure from authorities.

The police then announced to the protesters from a vehicle with a megaphone that they were an illegal assembly and would be detained and fined if they didn't leave. Around 10 am, the men in T-shirts rushed the crowd and dispersed them. Zhang said she saw women dragged down the stairs of the bank entrance.

Zhang herself was hit, and said she asked the officer, "Why did you hit me?" According to her, he responded: "What's wrong with beating you?"
Related articles

Yang said he was hit by two security officers including one who had fallen off the stairs and mistakenly thought in the chaos that Yang had hit or pushed him.

"Although repeated protests and demonstrations don't necessarily have a big impact, I think it is still helpful if more people get to know about us, and understand or sympathise with us," Yang said. "Each time you do it, you might make a difference. Although you will get hit, they can't really do anything to you, right?"

A large crowd of angry Chinese bank depositors faced off with police Sunday, some reportedly injured as they were roughly taken away. Photo / AP

The protesters were bused to various sites where Zhang said they were forced to sign a letter guaranteeing they would not gather anymore.

Late Sunday, Henan banking regulators posted a short notice on their website saying that authorities are speeding up the verification of customer funds in four of the banks and the formulation of a plan to resolve the situation to protect the rights and interests of the public.

- AP

CRIMINAL GIG CAPITALI$M

Uber wooed Russia's rich and powerful but failed there anyway

Ian Duncan, Jul 12 2022

NAM Y. HUH/AP

LONG READ

As Uber pushed into markets around the world, the ride-sharing service lobbied political leaders to relax labour and taxi laws.

When Uber chief executive Travis Kalanick touched down in Moscow in June 2016, Uber was on the march in Russia.

The company had worked hard to forge ties in a nation notoriously tricky for Western businesses and had leaned on all the questionable, grow-at-all-costs tactics that had become its hallmark around the globe.

It cultivated oligarchs and government officials at a time when the country faced growing international condemnation for seizing Crimea from Ukraine and stoking war in that country's east. It sold a US$200 million (NZ$327m) stake to a pair of oligarchs in a quest to get close to Russian President Vladimir Putin, despite the authoritarian drift of Putin's government, then, according to previously unpublicised emails among company executives, offered a US$50 million deal sweetener that it didn't publicise. It agreed, emails show, to hire a lobbyist for as much as US$650,000 in an arrangement so concerning to Uber's lawyers that they insisted the lobbyist submit to training in US anti-bribery law.

Uber's approach appeared to be working, and on the second night of Kalanick's trip, tech entrepreneurs and government officials assembled around a vast table to dine with the Uber executive at the Moscow City Golf Club.


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Six kilometres from the Kremlin, the 9-hole club stood atop a former city dump and wasn't as fancy as those in the suburbs, but it still offered a kind of stuffy luxury. According to a table plan obtained by The Washington Post, Kalanick was to sit across from one of Putin's ministers and the head of Sberbank, Russia's biggest bank.

Kalanick left the following morning, seemingly happy with his time in Moscow. His team was pleased, too.

"Russia trips seems to have been a success," Rachel Whetstone, then the company's communications director, wrote to Mark MacGann, a former Uber public policy executive who by then had become an adviser to the board and had joined the trip to chaperone Kalanick.

"Was a great 36-hour immersion," MacGann replied. "Media very strong”.

Uber viewed Russia as among the company's most important foreign markets, according to a memo that is part of the Uber Files, a trove of more than 124,000 documents that MacGann provided to the Guardian. It shared the trove with the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists, a nonprofit newsroom in Washington, DC, that helped lead the project, and dozens of other news organisations, including The Washington Post. The documents provide a detailed look at the aggressive strategies Uber adopted to grow in Europe and other international markets. MacGann was the company's' head of public policy from 2014 to 2016.

That memo shows that Uber believed Russia's dozen "millionniki" - cities home to at least a million people - presented a ripe opportunity. But like the golf club's, Uber's foundations in Russia were questionable. A little over a year later, Uber would essentially pull out of the country.

The retreat was evidence that even with piles of investor cash and a willingness to embrace the Russian elite at a time of growing authoritarianism, Uber's growth had limits. In nations such as Russia and China, which Uber also exited, the pathways to power were obscure to outsiders, and homegrown competitors could dominate.

The files do not contain evidence that Uber violated sanctions or broke the law as it tried to grow in Russia. But today, following Russia's invasion of Ukraine, almost everyone with whom Uber allied then is under sanction for their alleged ties to Putin by US or European authorities.

Devon Spurgeon, a spokesperson for Kalanick, said he had only limited involvement in Uber's expansion in Russia and was not aware of anyone acting on Uber's behalf in the country in a way that violated American or Russian laws.

CHRIS J RATCLIFFE/GETTY IMAGES
The company had worked hard to forge ties in a nation notoriously tricky for Western businesses.

"Kalanick's role was limited to a trip to Russia that included a few meetings arranged by Uber's policy and business development teams," Spurgeon said. She added that Kalanick "was asked for his involvement" after Uber's "robust" legal, policy and business development teams had "vetted and approved the strategy and operations plans."

"Kalanick acted at all times lawfully and with the clear approval and authorization of Uber's legal team," Spurgeon said. "Kalanick is not aware of anyone acting on Uber's behalf in Russia who engaged in any conduct that would have violated either Russian or US law."

Jill Hazelbaker, a spokeswoman for Uber, said nobody currently at the company was involved in developing its strategy in Russia and that today it discloses its anti-corruption policies.

"Current Uber management thinks Putin is reprehensible and disavows any previous association with him or those close to him," Hazelbaker wrote.

But in 2016, Russia's future remained unclear, and Uber's leadership had reason to think its investments would pay off.

The files show that Sberbank's chief executive, Herman Gref, introduced Uber officials to the mayor of Moscow, and Uber credited the bank's help in securing a deal with city authorities that avoided a demand that all Uber drivers have yellow cars. They also show that in February 2016, Uber accepted US$200 million from LetterOne, the investment firm of Mikhail Fridman and Petr Aven, oligarchs who made their fortunes after the collapse of the Soviet Union, and struck a secret deal worth an additional US$50 million to encourage them to aid its success in Russia.

With the help of a lobbyist Fridman and Aven's firm recommended, company emails and memos show, Uber was working to have a federal law on taxis written to stop regional governments from being able to limit Uber's growth.

Jessica Tillipman, an assistant dean at George Washington University Law School, said that pursuing that kind of lobbying strategy in Russia, where the risk of corruption is high, would have been risky under American anti-bribery laws.

"It's kind of a blazing red flag," she said. "There are many companies that would opt to walk away from something like this”.

By year's end, Uber expected to be in 18 cities in Russia, according to a company memo.

But there were signs that not all was well. As an American company with global ambitions, Uber was increasingly out of step with how Russia was evolving in the mid-2010s.

The company's core customers were westward-looking members of the middle class - whom Uber portrayed as wanting to use the same app Parisians used, even if they could no longer afford to travel to France, according to a company memo - and its political allies were economic reformers with ties to the United States and Europe. But the rising force in Russia was Putin, who was consolidating control over the country and curbing the independence of tech companies in particular.


Uber had other weaknesses, too. Consultants hired by Uber had concluded that Fridman and Aven's political influence was not what it had been thought to be, according to a report they provided to the company. Company executives would soon come to believe their handpicked lobbyist hadn't done much to justify his tens of thousands of dollars in monthly fees. And while Uber hadn't faced the kind of entrenched opposition from the taxi industry that it had battled elsewhere in Europe, it did have to contend with a large, homegrown rival in the form of Russia's answer to Google, Yandex.

Despite MacGann's upbeat appraisal of the Moscow trip for Whetstone, he shared a different view of Kalanick's performance with David Plouffe, a former adviser to US President Barack Obama who, as an Uber executive, had helped lay the groundwork for the company in Russia.

"Neither his head nor his heart are in it," MacGann wrote in an email. "He's exhausted”.

AMY RIDOUT/STUFF
Uber tried to get a foothold in Russia.

Uber had entered Russia in 2013, initially facing little opposition. But after it launched the low-cost UberX service, the authorities began to take notice. A backbench member of the Duma, the lower chamber of Russia's parliament, wrote to Putin and Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev in September 2014 calling for the company to be banned. There was little threat of that, Uber's leaders concluded, but they began looking for oligarchs and other influential figures who could serve as allies.

Emil Michael, then Uber's chief business officer, wrote to MacGann that month wondering whether Roman Abramovich, then the owner of the Chelsea soccer club in England, might be a good choice: "I think we want someone aligned with Putin and I don't know the politics in Russia super well."

In early 2015, Uber's leaders in Russia and Europe began sizing up a shortlist of the country's richest men, emails show. Experts on Russian politics say it's not clear how much sway many oligarchs - billionaires who in some cases made their fortunes by snapping up government assets after the fall of the Soviet Union - held as Putin tightened his grip.

But Uber's leaders and advisers saw them as the key to success, replicating an approach the company had used in other countries that involved lining up strategic partners who brought both money and political influence.

In Russia, though, it was a potentially risky path.

MacGann sent a note listing five possible names, and Dmitri Izmailov, Uber's manager in Russia, circulated a brief memo in January summarising their wealth, business interests, political ties and accusations of wrongdoing they had faced: "It's a colourful group of people."

Izmailov declined to comment.

Among the candidates was Alisher Usmanov, a metals magnate, who was convicted of economic offences in the 1980s during the Soviet era. His spokesman said the charges were politically motivated and later overturned. Hazelbaker said that at the time he was being considered, Uber executives were aware he had been accused of corruption.

Three days later, MacGann wrote to Michael that he had spoken with an investor who worked for Usmanov.

Michael urged caution: "We got to be clean with Russia investors, but at the same time not insult them so let's be careful what we say to any Russian investors."

Asked recently about the exchange, a spokesman for Michael said Uber's foreign investors were approved and vetted by the company's policy and public relations team, and its legal and compliance team.

"Uber operated in Russia along with most other large US-based global businesses," the spokesman said. "Uber never courted any individuals who were subject to US sanctions in any way and abided by best practices for all US businesses operating in the country."

Usmanov would invest US$20 million in Uber before the end of 2015, according to Uber memos. The company's team in Russia planned to put his influence to use, according to a strategy document from that fall, but there's no record in the files of him aiding Uber. When Uber was asked by Fortune about the investment in early 2016, Michael wrote to MacGann and another Uber executive, "We DO NOT want to confirm this at all."

Grigory Levchenko, a spokesman for Usmanov's company, USM, said Usmanov had never been involved in politics. "USM and Uber were negotiating a purely financial investment, and USM's involvement was limited to this," Levchenko said, adding that USM made a profit on its investment in Uber.

By March 2015, Abramovich had decided not to invest but continued to advise Uber as it sought other partners in Russia. The company's leaders had added Sberbank to its target list. The bank traces its history back to the time of the czars, and under Gref's leadership it had been overhauled and modernized.

MacGann said he could make the introduction to Gref, and in July 2015, he and Plouffe made a trip to Moscow to begin the long courtship that culminated in the golf club dinner.

Plouffe did not respond to questions about his activities for Uber involving Russia. Gref and Sberbank did not respond to questions about their dealings with Uber.


ANDY JACKSON/STUFF
Russia was seen as a key emerging market for the company.

As the Uber team began to establish relationships in Russia, the challenge the Moscow authorities posed to Uber's growth was becoming clear.

A top official in the Moscow government had called for national regulation of ride-hailing companies and demanded an investigation into Uber. On August 24, 2015, a local prosecutor paid Uber a visit, asking for a meeting within two days to address a litany of complaints against the company. The local authorities wanted Uber to use only drivers with taxi licences and operate only yellow vehicles, something that Uber saw as a major barrier to recruitment.

"Looks like we need to ramp up our alliances on the ground, and fast," MacGann wrote after learning about the investigation.

Other threats loomed. Under the heading "growing pressure," an October 2015 summary of Uber's position in Russia also listed investigations from a federal anti-monopoly authority, a tax agency and prosecutors in St. Petersburg.

But Uber was beginning to make headway and lock in allies. Usmanov had invested, and talks were underway with LetterOne. Uber and Sberbank had signed a publicly announced deal to work together on mobile payments and vehicle financing. An executive at the bank promised to speak to the Moscow official who had demanded the investigation and explore the possibility of a meeting between Uber and the mayor of Moscow, an Uber executive wrote in an email after the agreement was signed. US authorities had placed limited sanctions on Sberbank, but Uber's lawyers advised in December 2015 that they wouldn't get in the way of the agreement, according to an email.

Then, in Davos for the 2016 edition of the World Economic Forum, Kalanick personally helped reel in LetterOne's investment. Kalanick met Alexey Reznikovich, the managing partner of LetterOne Technology, at the five-star Belvedere Hotel, according to his calendar.

"TK did great job at getting Alexey comfortable - created strong contact," MacGann wrote.

Reznikovich did not respond to requests for comment.

In February, the deal was signed. Uber agreed that LetterOne could publicise the investment, a break from its usual practice. But in a news release, Kalanick only hinted at what Uber saw as the major value of the partnership, saying, "L1's knowledge of emerging markets will be crucial”.

Unmentioned: A US$50 million side deal with LetterOne in the form of warrants - financial instruments that typically allow the holder to buy more stock at favourable prices - designed to incentivise LetterOne to help Uber grow in Russia, according to company emails describing the deal.

Hazelbaker said even if LetterOne "did nothing" it could have still used the warrants, and that they were tied to "Uber's relative growth in Russia, as measured by the number of trips happening in the country”.

In a recent interview, Aven, who resigned as a LetterOne director earlier this year, said he recalled one meeting with an Uber employee but was not involved in the investment in the company. He said he did not lobby on Uber's behalf.

"I can give you a comment because it's easy," he said. "I was not involved with Uber at all”.

Fridman, who also resigned as a LetterOne director this year, said his involvement with Uber also was minimal.

"Except for my very short meeting with Kalanick, I was not involved with the Uber investment or with any lobbying," Fridman said in a recent interview.

A spokesperson for LetterOne also said the company did not engage in any lobbying, and the decision to hire any lobbyist was Uber's.

"L1 became a modest strategic investor in Uber's multibillion-dollar funding round on the basis of Uber's potential in Asia and Russia," the spokesman said.

But to Uber leaders, the partnership quickly proved its worth. Within weeks, they were crediting LetterOne and Sberbank with helping Uber and the Moscow authorities reach an operating agreement, emails show, easing one major source of pressure on the company. Uber agreed to use cars with taxi licences and share some data with the local government but avoided requirements such as having to operate yellow vehicles.

With allies in place and the Moscow authorities at bay, MacGann and one of Uber's outside advisers began crafting a strategy in a document titled "taming the bear." The focus was passing a favourable federal law through the Duma that would allow Uber to grow relatively unchecked by limiting the power of regional authorities to require cars of a particular color or cap the number of taxi licences.

"The team believes that we should get organised, and fast, for an effective and comprehensive all-out lobbying campaign," they wrote in a draft memo outlining the plan.

Experts on Russian politics said Aven and Fridman's influence by 2016 was likely not substantial, but Uber's leaders were optimistic nonetheless. In an email, MacGann described the men as being part of a circle of the top 20 people who mattered in Russia.

"Having allies such as Aven, Gref and Fridman is quite unprecedented for a foreign (and US to boot) business seeking to disrupt the status quo in Russia and generate substantial income," MacGann wrote.

The new investors from LetterOne were keen to help - with one addition.

They proposed having Vladimir Senin, an executive at a bank they also ran, serve as Uber's lobbyist at a cost of US$50,000 a month, according to emails among Uber leaders describing the pitch. The proposal troubled Uber's leadership team, including Whetstone, who urged colleagues in emails to be sure they considered other consultants.

"I don't want to have our agencies decided by outsiders or to appoint an agency without a tender between three or four firms so that we know we have the best fit at the best cost," she wrote.

The potential cost, which at one point in the discussions with Senin ballooned to a proposed US$800,000 for about 7 months' work, also became an issue.

"It is so much money," Whetstone wrote. "Can we negotiate. Basically over 100k a month which I would never normally pay”.

Whetstone declined to comment on the specifics of her involvement with Uber's business in Russia. She said in general that she "consistently pushed back on Uber's more aggressive business practices."

Senin did not respond to requests for comment.

Uber's lawyers also raised concerns about the arrangement, according to a summary of their guidance, written by Uber executive Fraser Robinson. They worried about the possibility that Senin would take actions for which the company would be legally responsible.

"Ultimately there is no absolute way to prevent this, but the best we can do will most likely be to speak to L1 and tell them that they need to make 200% clear to Senin that any bribes will not be tolerated, and that we may hold the discretionary warrants as collateral," Robinson wrote to MacGann.

Robinson declined to comment.

In an April 2016 email, an Uber lawyer wrote that it would be preferable for LetterOne itself to be responsible for the lobbying. Otherwise, Senin and his team should be required to undergo compliance training and provide documentation of their activities.

Just as MacGann had labelled some of the legal advice too conservative, Benjamin Wegg-Prosser, an outside adviser to Uber, called the idea "totally absurd”.

"I see this all the time from idiot lawyers in the US who think that the world should work like a suburb of Seattle," he wrote to MacGann.

In a statement, Wegg-Prosser's firm, Global Counsel, said its work for Uber's European team "was undertaken in adherence with all relevant EU and UK guidelines”.

Ultimately, Uber agreed to hire Senin in a deal worth up to US$650,000. A draft of his contract included the training requirement and a pledge that he would not violate anti-corruption laws. Hazelbaker said a contract Uber found in its records "contains robust anti-corruption provisions”.

In response to questions, MacGann said he had concerns at the time about the amount Uber was being asked to pay Senin.

"This was clearly irregular," he said. "I made my concerns clear to the management team in San Francisco, including to my direct boss at the time."

But the company was up against a deadline, fearing that in Duma elections in the fall a key sympathetic lawmaker might lose his seat.


RICHARD DREW/AP
The logo for Uber appears above a trading post on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange.

In the spring of 2016, Uber's team in Europe began planning for Kalanick to come to Moscow. He had already met some of Uber's key partners at Davos and hosted Gref at the company's San Francisco headquarters, but now it was time to visit them on their home turf.

The trip would illustrate how closely tied politics and business were in Russia, with Kalanick often sharing a table with corporate leaders and top government officials.

"God love the Russians, where business and politics are so cosy," MacGann wrote.

Even though it was June, Kalanick's first night in Moscow was as cold, he said, as the coldest day in California. Huddled under red blankets or wearing coats, a crowd of about 1700 people had turned out to see Kalanick explain how Uber could help bust Moscow's traffic - "probki," as he had learned Russians called it. Kalanick, wearing a borrowed jacket, delivered his presentation awkwardly before taking questions.

A reporter from a Russian outlet struck right at the heart of one of Uber's biggest challenges in Russia: the stiff competition from other operators.

"Your ambitious plan about Russia and changing the traffic situation, are they real?" the reporter asked. "Uber honestly is nowadays one of the smallest taxi apps. I'm sorry for that, but we have Yandex Taxi."

"Boo," Kalanick said, talking over her. "It's OK, it's OK."

Yandex's taxi company was a branch of the Russian tech firm, which also ran a search engine and mapping service. In internal reports, Uber estimated that in March 2016, Uber was conducting 420,000 trips per week to Yandex's 750,000. Uber executives saw potential for working with Yandex but also found the Russian company unwilling to join its lobbying efforts.

On Monday morning, Kalanick met with one of Russia's deputy prime ministers at a pizzeria before heading across town to Fridman's offices. Kalanick might have boasted about cutting traffic, but to get to the dinner with Gref on time, his team decided they would have to take the Metro.

"Good news: we took metro and it meant we were on time for Gref influencer dinner instead of 45 minutes late," MacGann texted Whetstone. The bad news, he said, was that they had passed through stations that looked like some of the grimmer parts of London, rather than the palatial ones for which Moscow is famous.

The visit ended the next morning on an inauspicious note: Kalanick overslept and forgot his phone at the hotel.

GETTY IMAGES
Russia showed that there were parts of the globe that Uber simply couldn't conquer.

The week before Kalanick's visit, Uber had hired an in-house government relations executive in Russia. Marat Murtazin had held a similar role with oil giant BP. That meant he had an awkward history with Fridman and Aven, who had used the proceeds from a collapsed joint venture with BP to launch their investment firm.

As Murtazin got to grips with Uber's position in Russia, he soon began to question whether Senin was doing the lobbying work he claimed. Other Uber executives, including Whetstone, were also concerned about Senin's performance.

"I think that we let Senin to play a guaranteed win lottery without even making him to pay for a lottery - ticket," Murtazin wrote to Robinson in his idiosyncratic English.

Murtazin did not respond to requests for comment.

By July 2016, Uber had decided to end Senin's contract. But it was a delicate subject, because some company leaders feared it would alienate Aven, his patron. They ultimately paid him US$300,000, leaving Senin "very happy," according to Murtazin.

"What an absolutely terrible waste of money," MacGann wrote to Murtazin.

Hazelbaker confirmed Senin was paid.

"We certainly would not engage with Senin today," she said.

The prospects of the taxi law passing before the election were also slipping away as different factions battled over its contents. Uber's team decided to regroup and develop a plan for the new session of the Duma. The taxi law was never passed, according to the Duma's records.

In June 2017, Kalanick resigned as chief executive after a wave of allegations about sexual harassment at Uber. Within weeks, Uber had signed a deal to form a joint venture controlled by Yandex, marking the end of its efforts to expand in Russia. Uber began winding down its involvement in that venture in 2021, accelerating its efforts after Russia's invasion of Ukraine in February. Fridman and Aven's LetterOne later sold its stake in Uber at a loss, according to Russian media reports.

Just as the company's buccaneering culture had finally caught up with Kalanick, Russia had shown that there were parts of the globe that Uber simply couldn't conquer.


The Washington Post

CRIMINAL CAPITALI$M UBER ALLES

Uber files: Leaked docs reveal top politicians secretly aided Uber lobbying

Emmanuel Macron among politicians who aided lobbying

| AFP, Times of Malta 

According to media reports, Uber lobbied governments to aid its expansion, finding, in particular, an ally in France's Emmanuel Macron. Uber executives also reportedly met with Joe Biden, Benjamin Netanyahu and George Osborne. 

File photos: AFP, Shutterstock.

A leaked cache of confidential files from ride-sharing company Uber illustrates ethically dubious and potentially illegal tactics it used to fuel its frenetic global expansion beginning nearly a decade ago, a joint media investigation shows.

Dubbed the "Uber Files," the investigation involving dozens of news organizations found that company officials leveraged the sometimes violent backlash from the taxi industry against drivers to garner support and evaded regulatory authorities as it looked to conquer new markets early in its history.

Culled from 124,000 documents from 2013-2017 initially obtained by British daily the Guardian and shared with the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists, the revelations are the latest hit for a company dogged by controversy as it exploded into a disruptive force in local transportation.

The cache includes unvarnished text and email exchanges between executives, with standouts from co-founder and former chief executive Travis Kalanick, who was forced to resign in 2017 following accusations of brutal management practices and multiple episodes of sexual and psychological harassment at the company.

"Violence guarantee(s) success," Kalanick messaged other company leaders as he pushed for a counter protest amid sometimes heated demonstrations in Paris in 2016 against Uber's arrival in the market.

Uber's rapid expansion leaned on subsidized drivers and discounted fares that undercut the taxi industry, and "often without seeking licenses to operate as a taxi and livery service," reported The Washington Post, one of the media outlets involved in the probe.

Drivers across Europe had faced violent retaliation as taxi drivers felt their livelihoods threatened. The investigation found that "in some instances, when drivers were attacked, Uber executives pivoted quickly to capitalize" to seek public and regulatory support, the Post said.

According to the Guardian, Uber has adopted similar tactics in European countries including Belgium, the Netherlands, Spain and Italy, mobilising drivers and encouraging them to complain to the police when they were victims of violence, in order to use media coverage to obtain concessions from the authorities.

A spokesperson for Kalanick strongly denied the findings as a "false agenda," saying he "never suggested that Uber should take advantage of violence at the expense of driver safety."

Uber, however, placed the blame Sunday on previously publicised "mistakes" made by leadership under Kalanick.

"We've moved from an era of confrontation to one of collaboration, demonstrating a willingness to come to the table and find common ground with former opponents, including labour unions and taxi companies," it said, noting that his replacement, Dara Khosrowshahi, "was tasked with transforming every aspect of how Uber operates."
'Kill switch'

The investigation also found that Uber worked to evade regulatory probes by leveraging a technological edge, the Post wrote.

It described an instance when Kalanick implemented a "kill switch" to remotely cut off access of devices in an Amsterdam office to Uber's internal systems during a raid by authorities.

"Please hit the kill switch ASAP," he wrote in an email to an employee. "Access must be shut down in AMS (Amsterdam)."

Kalanick spokesperson Devon Spurgeon said the former chief executive "never authorised any actions or programs that would obstruct justice in any country."


Kalanick "did not create, direct or oversee these systems set up by legal and compliance departments and has never been charged in any jurisdiction for obstruction of justice or any related offence," she said.

But the investigation charged that Uber's actions flouted laws and that executives were aware, citing one joking that they had become "pirates."

The reports say the files reveal Uber also lobbied governments to aid its expansion, finding, in particular, an ally in France's Emmanuel Macron, who was economy minister from 2014 to 2016 and is now the country's president.

The company believed Macron would encourage regulators "to be 'less conservative' in their interpretation of rules limiting the company's operations," the Post said.

Macron was an open supporter of Uber and the idea of turning France into a "start-up nation" in general, but the leaked documents suggest that the minister's support even sometimes clashed with the leftist government's policies.

The revelations sparked indignation among leftist politicians, who denounced the Uber-Macron links as against "all our rules, all our social rights and against workers' rights," and condemned the "pillage of the country."
Meeting Biden, Netanyahu, Osborne

The Guardian also reports that when Joe Biden, US vice-president and a supporter of Uber at the time, was late to a meeting with the company at the World Economic Forum at Davos, Kalanick texted a colleague: “I’ve had my people let him know that every minute late he is, is one less minute he will have with me.”

Following the meeting, Biden appears to have amended his speech to refer to a CEO whose company would give millions of workers “freedom to work as many hours as they wish, manage their own lives as they wish”, the Guardian reports.

Apart from meeting the former US vice-president, Uber executives also reportedly met with Macron, Irish prime minister Enda Kenny, Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu and UK’s chancellor George Osborne. The Guardian reports that according to a note from the meeting Osborne was a “strong advocate”.

In a reaction published by the Guardian, Osborne said it was the explicit policy of the government at the time to meet with global tech firms and “persuade them to invest in Britain, and create jobs here”.

 

French opposition denounces Uber-Macron ‘secret deal’

Le Monde’s report highlights what it says was help from Macron’s ministry intended to help Uber consolidate its position in France, such as suggesting that the company present 'ready-made' amendments to deputies to help their case. — AFP pic

Monday, 11 Jul 2022 11:09 AM MYT

PARIS, July 11 — Opposition deputies yesterday denounced reports of a secret deal between French President Emmanuel Macron — when he was a minister under a socialist government — and online transport giant Uber.

The allegations come in the latest data-based investigation by leading international news outlets based on leaked files, announced on social media as #UberFiles.

The report in France’s Le Monde daily, citing documents, text messages and witnesses, alleges that Uber came to a secret “deal” with Macron when he was economy minister between 2014 and 2016.

Le Monde’s report highlights what it says was help from Macron’s ministry intended to help Uber consolidate its position in France, such as suggesting that the company present “ready-made” amendments to deputies to help their case.

Opposition deputies have denounced what they say appears to have been close collaboration between Macron and Uber at a time when the company was trying to get around tight government regulation of their sector.

Contacted by AFP, Uber France confirmed that the two sides had been in contact. The meetings with Macron had been in the normal course of his ministerial duties, which covered the private-hire sector.

The president’s office told AFP that at that time Macron had, as economy minister, “naturally” been in contact with “many companies involved in the profound change in services that has occurred over the years mentioned, which should be facilitated by unravelling certain administrative or regulatory locks”.

But Mathilde Panot, parliamentary leader of the hard-left opposition France Unbowed party, denounced on Twitter what she described as the “pillage of the country” during Macron’s time as minister under president Francois Hollande.

She described Macron as a “lobbyist” for a “US multinational aiming to permanently deregulate labour law”.

‘Against all our rules'

Communist Party leader Fabien Roussel described Le Monde’s story as “damning revelations about the active role played by Emmanuel Macron, then minister, to facilitate the development of Uber in France.

“Against all our rules, all our social rights and against workers’ rights,” he posted on Twitter.

Communist deputy Pierre Dharreville called for a parliamentary inquiry into the affair.

Jordan Bardella, president of the far-right National Rally party, tweeted that the revelations showed that Macron’s career had “a common thread: to serve private interests, often foreign, before national interests”.

The Uber Files investigation is based on a leak of tens of thousands of documents to Britain’s Guardian newspaper from an anonymous source, and has been coordinated by the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists.

The ICIJ is working with 42 media partners around the world on the story. — AFP

Leaked ‘Uber files’ show how company capitalized on violence against drivers

BY JULIA MUELLER - 07/10/22

An Uber sign is displayed inside a car in Palatine, Ill., Thursday, Feb. 10, 2022. As Uber pushed into markets around the world, the ride-sharing service lobbied political leaders to relax labor and taxi laws and used a “kill switch″ to thwart regulators and law enforcement. Uber also channeled money through Bermuda and other tax havens and considered portraying violence against its drivers as a way to gain public sympathy. That’s according to a report released Sunday by the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists. (AP Photo/Nam Y. Huh)

Leaked internal communications reveal how rideshare giant Uber exploited violence against its drivers to boost public opinion, and sometimes flouted laws, as the company battled against taxi drivers and regulators in its rapid expansion in cities across the world.

After Uber drivers were sent to a taxi-industry protest in France in 2016, co-founder and then-CEO Travis Kalanick reportedly sent a text saying the risk to drivers’ safety was “worth it” and that “violence guarantees success.”

Kalanick’s comment is among the “Uber Files,” 124,000 documents leaked to The Guardian and shared with the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists and other major outlets including the Washington Post.

“Get some sleep when you can,” said Nairi Hourdajian, Uber’s head of communications, to one of its lobbyists in Europe in 2014. “Remember that everything is not in your control, and that sometimes we have problems because, well, we’re just f—— illegal.”

After four Uber drivers were attacked in 2015 by taxi drivers in the Netherlands — protesting Uber’s use of nonprofessional drivers on the grounds that it was illegal — the company’s general manager in Belgium, Niek Van Leeuwen, apparently wrote to Kalanick and others: “We keep the violence narrative going for a few days, before we offer the solution.”

By prolonging the narrative of violence, executives hoped to pressure politicians to weigh in on the issue and pump up publicity in Uber’s favor.

“Excellent work. This is exactly what we wanted and the timing is perfect,” wrote Uber’s head of public policy for Europe, the Middle East and Africa, Mark MacGann, after the incidents.

Discussing an attack by taxi drivers against one of its cars in Belgium, company lobbyist Cristian Samoilovich wrote, “We need to use this in our favour.”

The Guardian’s Uber Files also found that French President Emmanuel Macron, then France’s finance minister, helped Uber access the French cabinet – and that U.S. President Biden, then vice president, changed a speech to refer more favorably to the company after a meeting with Kalanick in 2016.Ukraine defense chief says US rocket systems have been ‘game-changer’Is federal government dooming efforts to address climate change?

In a statement released Sunday, a spokesperson for Kalanick denied allegations that Uber acted illegally.

Uber acknowledged that its “mistakes” under Kalanick “culminated in one of the most infamous reckonings in the history of corporate America,” but that the company has changed since it ousted its founder and hired new CEO Dara Khosrowshahi in 2017.

But the company continued to grapple with controversy: just last month, it shared a report cataloging nearly 4,000 sexual assault claims on its rides in 2019-20, which was a decline on previous years.

Uber lobbied politicians, broke laws in global push: reports

Company received assistance from politicians including French President Emmanuel Macron, according to newspaper reports.

Uber Technologies Inc attempted to lobby politicians and flouted laws as part of efforts to expand globally from 2013 to 2017, according to newspaper reports based on leaked documents

 [File: Brendan McDermid/Reuters]

Bloomberg
Published On 11 Jul 202211 Jul 2022
Uber Technologies Inc. attempted to lobby politicians and flouted laws as part of efforts to expand globally from 2013 to 2017, according to newspaper reports based on leaked documents.
The company allegedly received assistance in its efforts from politicians including French President Emmanuel Macron, reports from outlets including the Guardian and Le Monde said. The so-called “Uber Files” — based on more than 124,000 documents shared with the non-profit International Consortium of Investigative Journalists — cover a period of time when co-founder Travis Kalanick was chief executive officer and detail the lengths to which the company sought to expand into key cities like Paris.
In a statement released shortly after the reports were published, Uber didn’t deny any of the allegations and instead focused on the changes that have been made since Dara Khosrowshahi was named CEO in 2017.
“There has been no shortage of reporting on Uber’s mistakes prior to 2017,” the San Francisco-based company said in a statement. “Thousands of stories have been published, multiple books have been written — there’s even been a TV series.”
Uber said that Khosrowshahi has transformed the company, making safety a top priority.
“When we say Uber is a different company today, we mean it literally: 90% of current Uber employees joined after Dara became CEO,” according to the statement.
Uber’s aggressive tactics as it took on the taxi industry have been reported on for years. Bloomberg News reported in 2018 that the company had deployed a remote system to prevent police from obtaining internal data during raids.
French newspaper Le Monde reported on text messages between Kalanick and Macron while he was finance minister. There were a total of four meetings between the two and a secret “deal” was put in place between Uber executives and French politicians, it said.
As finance minister, Macron was “naturally brought to exchange with numerous companies engaged in the profound mutation of services that occurred during the years mentioned,” a spokesperson for the Elysee said, adding that he sought “to facilitate by untying certain administrative or regulatory locks.”
According to the documents, Uber withdrew its person-to-person UberPop service in France in 2015 and a few months later, a law making it difficult to become a licensed Uber driver was modified in favor of the ride-hailing company, infuriating taxi drivers.
During anti-Uber protests in Paris and other European cities in 2016, Kalanick had dismissed internal concerns about potential violence against Uber drivers, according to the leaked documents. The company instead sought to use the violent attacks against its drivers at the time to win public sympathy, the reports said.

A spokesperson for Kalanick disputed the allegations in a detailed statement to the Washington Post, one of several news organizations that wrote about the documents.
“Mr. Kalanick never suggested that Uber should take advantage of violence at the expense of driver safety,” according to the statement. “Any accusation that Mr. Kalanick directed, engaged in, or was involved in any of these activities is completely false.”

SOURCE: BLOOMBERG

Uber 'used stealth technology to block scrutiny', report claims


By Associated Press

 Jul 11, 2022

As Uber aggressively pushed into markets around the world, the ride-sharing service lobbied political leaders to relax labour and taxi laws, used a "kill switch″ to thwart regulators and law enforcement, channelled money through Bermuda and other tax havens and considered portraying violence against its drivers as a way to gain public sympathy, according to a report.

The International Consortium of Investigative Journalists, a non-profit network of investigative reporters, scoured internal Uber texts, emails, invoices and other documents to deliver what it called "an unprecedented look into the ways Uber defied taxi laws and upended workers' rights".

The documents were first leaked to the British newspaper The Guardian, which shared them with the consortium.

Ride share giant Uber used aggressive tactics in its global expansion, a new report has claimed. (AAPSupplied)

In a written statement, Uber spokesperson Jill Hazelbaker acknowledged "mistakes″ in the past and said CEO Dara Khosrowshahi, hired in 2017, had been "tasked with transforming every aspect of how Uber operates".

"When we say Uber is a different company today, we mean it literally: 90 per cent of current Uber employees joined after Dara became CEO,″ Khosrowshahi said.
Founded in 2009, Uber sought to skirt taxi regulations and offer inexpensive transport via a ride-sharing app.

The consortium's Uber Files revealed the extraordinary lengths that the company undertook to establish itself in nearly 30 countries.

The company's lobbyists — including ex-aides to former US president Barack Obama — pressed government officials to drop their investigations, rewrite labour and taxi laws and relax background checks on drivers, the papers show.

The investigation found that Uber used "stealth technology″ to fend off government investigations.

The company, for example, used a "kill switch″ that cut access to Uber servers and blocked authorities from grabbing evidence during raids in at least six countries.

During a police raid in Amsterdam, the Uber Files reported, former Uber CEO Travis Kalanick personally issued an order: "Please hit the kill switch ASAP ... Access must be shut down in AMS (Amsterdam).″

A report has claimed former Uber CEO Travis Kalanick saw the threat of violence against Uber drivers in France by aggrieved taxi drivers as a way to gain public support.

The consortium also reported that Kalanick saw the threat of violence against Uber drivers in France by aggrieved taxi drivers as a way to gain public support. "Violence guarantee(s) success,″ Kalanick texted colleagues.

In a response to the consortium, Kalanick spokesman Devon Spurgeon said the former CEO "never suggested that Uber should take advantage of violence at the expense of driver safety".

The Uber Files say the company cut its tax bill by millions of dollars by sending profits through Bermuda and other tax havens, then "sought to deflect attention from its tax liabilities by helping authorities collect taxes from its drivers".

The Uber files – leak unmasks taxi firm’s ruthless expansion tactics

'Kill switch': Former Uber CEO Travis Kalanick. Photo: Anthony Devlin

Dana Hall
July 11 2022

Taxi-hailing firm Uber lobbied political leaders to relax labour and taxi laws, used a “kill switch’’ to thwart regulators, channelled money through tax havens and considered portraying violence against its drivers as a way to gain public sympathy, according to a new report.

The International Consortium of Investigative Journalists scoured internal Uber texts, emails, invoices and other documents to deliver what it called “an unprecedented look into the ways Uber defied taxi laws and upended workers’ rights’’.

Uber spokesperson Jill Hazelbaker acknowledged “mistakes’’ in the past and said CEO Dara Khosrowshahi, hired in 2017, had been “tasked with transforming every aspect of how Uber operates ...

"When we say Uber is a different company today, we mean it literally: 90pc of current Uber employees joined after Dara became CEO.’’

Founded in 2009, Uber sought to skirt taxi regulations and offer inexpensive transportation via an app. The consortium’s so-called “Uber Files” revealed the extraordinary lengths that the company undertook to establish itself in 30 countries.

The company’s lobbyists – including former aides to President Barack Obama – pressed government officials to drop their investigations, rewrite labour and taxi laws and relax background checks on drivers, the papers show.

The investigation found that Uber used “stealth technology’’ to fend off government investigations. The company, for example, used a “kill switch’’ that cut access to Uber servers and blocked authorities from grabbing evidence during raids in at least six countries. During a police raid in Amsterdam, the Uber Files reported, former Uber CEO Travis Kalanick personally issued an order: “Please hit the kill switch ASAP ... Access must be shut down in AMS (Amsterdam).’’

The consortium also reported that Mr Kalanick saw the threat of violence against Uber drivers in France by aggrieved taxi drivers as a way to gain public support. “Violence guarantee(s) success,’’ Mr Kalanick texted colleagues.

The Uber Files say the company cut its tax bill by millions of dollars by sending profits through Bermuda and other tax havens, then “sought to deflect attention from its tax liabilities by helping authorities collect taxes from its drivers’’.

HUGE POD OF FIN WHALES FILMED IN ANTARCTICA

 

 

TURKEY INVASION OF KURDISTAN
Military escalation | Turkish forces shell Tel Refaat and positions in Kurdish areas in Aleppo

On Jul 11, 2022

Aleppo province: SOHR activists have reported that Turkish bases stationed in “Euphrates Shield” and “Olive Branch” areas shell positions in Tel Refaat countryside in areas held by Kurdish and regime forces in Aleppo countryside. However, no casualties have been reported yet.

Earlier today, SOHR activists reported that several rockets and artillery shells fired by Turkish forces deployed in Euphrates Shield and olive branch areas on the villages of Granada and Hasajak in the northern countryside of Aleppo, where Kurdish and regime forces are deployed.

Yesterday, SOHR sources reported seeing a new Turkish military column crossing into Syria, via Al-Ra’i border crossing with Turkey.

The convoy, which comprised tanks, armoured vehicles and trucks carrying logistical supplies, headed to Turkish positions on the frontlines in Manbij area in eastern Aleppo.

OPINION PAPER | How The War In Ukraine Is Impacting The EU In Countering The Ongoing Global Food Crisis?




Daniel Marco

July 11,2022

The war on Ukraine “the breadbasket of the world” has put food security firmly back on the international agenda in a big way.[1] The reason for this is that Ukraine and Russia are two of the biggest agricultural powerhouses in the world. After Russia invaded Ukraine, grains exports were blocked and today several vulnerable countries are facing terrific suffering with aggravated food insecurity. According to the United Nations (UN), the war in Ukraine has put 45 African and poorest countries at risk of a “hurricane of hunger”.[2]

As solidarity is at the heart of EU values and food security is a concept that is carved into European Treaties, the EU and its member states have been fully engaged to cooperate with its worldwide partners to tackle negative impacts on food security. The EU has responded with a wide range of strategic decisions at the same time when Russia is using food as a weapon of war in Ukraine and blaming the EU and its allies for food insecurity.
Russia’s War On Global Food Security

Russia’s invasion of Ukraine is escalating the world food crisis as part of a premeditated campaign to foment famine. It also put pressure on the Western coalition backing Ukraine’s government a campaign that the EU has denounced as a war crime. This scenario could remind what Russia has already done with European countries with its natural gas exports.[3]

Since February 2022, Russia has been blocking all of Ukraine’s Black Sea ports, via which all of its huge exports were being transported. It was estimated that 20 million tons of Ukrainian grain were prevented from reaching other parts of the world.[4] And yet, there is currently no sign of an opening at the ports. World Food Program (WFP) executive director David Beasley recently issued a warning: “When a country like Ukraine that grows enough food for 400 million people is out of the market, it creates market volatility, which we are now seeing”.[5] This food crisis has been also made worse by Russia’s bombing and burning of grain storage facilities in the eastern and southern regions of Ukraine, as well as the theft of hundreds of thousands of tons of grain and exportation of that grain, largely to its partner Syria, with its ships.

It’s crucial to underline that 30% of the wheat and maize consumed worldwide is produced in Russia and Ukraine and more than 70% of its sunflower oil are significant grain suppliers. [6] Consequently, since Russian forces’ criminal activities on Ukraine took place, global food prices have soared while exports have fallen. Above all, the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) of the UN projects that, in 2023, there will be an increase of nearly 19 million people who are undernourished as a result of the anticipated shortfall in food exports from Ukraine and Russia, assuming that other countries do not increase food exports as a result.[7] Indeed, to counter the rise of prices domestically and avoid political tensions, food export restrictions have already been put in place by big grain producers like Russia, and with the global grain deficit that is going to get worse other nations are likely to follow.[8]

Moscow has started a grain war, creating a worldwide food crisis and it’s doing so at a time when millions of people, mainly in the Middle East and Africa, are already in danger of going hungry.

Before the conflict in Ukraine, most Middle Eastern and African nations were already dealing with skyrocketing food prices brought on by harsh weather conditions, instability brought on by terrorism, and the Covid-19 outbreak, which slowed down production and affected international supply networks. Global food costs have reached unprecedented highs since Russia’s invasion.

Given that they are also the main importers of Ukrainian and Russian wheat and have serious problems with food security. In 2020, 90% of Russia’s $4 billion in exports to Africa was constituted of wheat. Ukraine came in second with $3 billion in exports, with wheat accounting for 48% and maize for 31% of that total.[9] Some countries are expected to be more severely affected than others in the short term. For instance, in Lebanon, 80% of the 630 000 tons of wheat that were imported in 2020 came from Ukraine. In a nation where supplies of wheat are said to be limited to just a few weeks’ worth, the interruption to this supply and the anticipated price hike is alarming. Especially, after the explosion of the port of Beirut where 85% of the country’s grain reserves.[10]

In this context of global food insecurity, the European Commission approved increasing food security assistance that it claims is required due to the conflict between Russia and Ukraine. In late June, the Commission suggested allocating €600 million taken from the European Development Fund reserves for aid to the most vulnerable nations in the Pacific, the Caribbean, and Africa. A support that will cover several sectors including humanitarian assistance, food production, and resilience of food systems along with Macro-economic support.[11]

This new fund will supplement the global humanitarian aid that has already been mobilized as part of the EU’s Global Food Security Response to help address the food crisis in the regions affected by the ongoing war. Additionally, the declaration coincides with European Development Days, during which the EU also committed to providing 100 million Africans with renewable energy by 2030. Strong European commitments aim to prove to the world that the only reason for the global food insecurity is Russia and not the West as the Kremlin’s propaganda declares.
Kremlin’s Blame Game Against The West

Russia and western countries have been playing the finger-pointing game about who is to blame for shortages and rising costs of food as the impacts of the war are felt on the global markets.[12]

In May 2022, US Secretary of State Antony Bliken blamed Russia for using food as a weapon of war. Later on, at UN Security Council the EU joined the US statements in pushing the blame on Russia for the world’s food shortage, prompting the Russian UN ambassador to leave the room. During this session EU Council chief Charles Michel mentioned that the Kremlin is using food insecurity as a “stealth missile”.[13] Undoubtedly, food insecurity has been intensified because of Russia’s war of choice. Indeed, it has not risen as the Russian government has been claiming, by sanctions that the EU and its allies have charged regarding Moscow’s aggression on Ukraine. Food security was already fragilized before the war, and Russia’s war, blockade, and stealing of grain have all worsened this situation globally.

Nevertheless, Moscow keeps denying its responsibility for global food insecurity. It is “absolutely false,” according to Vassily Nebenzia, Russia’s ambassador to the UN, that his nation is to blame for the world’s long-term food shortage.[14] In addition, the country holds attributing the impeding food crisis to the West, citing the sanctions it has been subjected to as a result of the conflict.

Moscow claims that because of Western sanctions against its insurance, banking, and shipping sectors. Russia is unable to export food and fertilizer since foreign shipping companies are scared off from doing so. To send grain to global markets, Russian officials say that sanctions must be repealed. “If our partners want to reach a solution, then problems associated with lifting those sanctions placed on Russian exports must also be solved” stated Andrei Rudenko, the Russian Deputy Foreign Minister. [15]

These Russian beliefs have been backed by a disinformation campaign aiming to conceal the origin of the food crisis from the world. By blaming the West and Ukraine, Russian government representatives, state-funded media along with Moscow-aligned proxy “fake-news” actors are trying to divert attention away from Russia’s involvement in the deepening of global food instability. Consequently, their misinformation campaign is mainly targeting the Middle East and Africa, regions which have been hardest hit by the food crisis.[16]

To empower its position, Russia has amplified statements made by African leaders as part of its global disinformation strategy. In late May 2022, Macky Sall, the head of the African Union, claimed that sanctions had made the food crisis worse and cautioned authorities at a meeting of the European Union that stopping large Russian banks from using the SWIFT system would make it harder for African nations to buy Russian grains and fertilizers.[17] “When the SWIFT system is disrupted, it means that even if products exist, the payment becomes complicated, if not impossible”.[18] Recall that a common statement on cooperation towards 2030 was the outcome of the sixth EU-African Union summit held in Brussels one week before Russia’s war on Ukraine.

In this regard, to refute the Russian narrative, European governments are engaging with leaders on the African continent more and stepping up their information operations. In May, European leaders urged African nations not to fall for a Kremlin-led misinformation campaign that blames Western sanctions against Russia for an approaching global food catastrophe. In addition,

EU officials have urged a more active strategy to counter Russian disinformation and propaganda, however, the bloc has so far lacked the resources to do so since the EU’s diplomatic service’s East StratCom Task Force, is underfunded and not enough supported. Therefore, the EU’s new Strategic Compass is expected to call for several actions, including strengthening EU Delegations abroad and enhancing member states’ abilities to identify and analyze malicious misinformation.[19]
The Challenges Ahead For The EU And Its Allies

Russia’s “hunger plan” is intended to function on three levels. The first aim of its plan is to destroy Ukraine by shutting off exports, then by bringing in refugees from North Africa and the Middle East, regions typically supplied by Ukraine, it is an effort to sow instability in the EU. And lastly, a backdrop of global hunger is required for a Russian propaganda operation against Ukraine. When the food riots spread and malnutrition grows, Russian media will be able to accuse Ukraine and demand the recognition of Russia’s territorial gains in Ukraine as well as the lifting of all EU and western sanctions.

Moreover, the debate over whether specific sanctions relief should be considered if it will prevent famine was launched at the EU level, especially in times when the crisis in Ukraine continues and food shortages get worse. This is why the EU and its allies have ensured during the last G7 meeting that their sanctions on Russia do not and will not affect foodstuffs.[20]An engagement was taken at the time when the Kremlin is attempting to create controversy to get the sanctions withdrawn and is determined to use the prospect of world starvation as a negotiating tool in any future peace negotiations.

Nearly 193 million people in 53 nations and territories have severe food insecurity and need immediate assistance even before Russia invaded Ukraine. The issue is being drastically made worse by Russia’s attack.[21] The conflict, and the consequences of climate change and the Covid-19 pandemic combined “threatens to tip tens of millions of people over the edge into food insecurity followed by malnutrition, mass hunger, and famine” said Antonio Guterres Secretary-General of the UN. [22] Hence, it’s essential to emphasize that the key for the EU and its allies is to keep taking preventative measures, as what is currently an accessibility problem could turn into an availability concern in the long term.

_______________________________

[1] https://www.lemonde.fr/en/economy/article/2022/05/12/war-in-ukraine-threatens-the-world-s-breadbasket_5983258_19.html

[2] https://theconversation.com/too-many-people-not-enough-food-isnt-the-cause-of-hunger-and-food-insecurity-179168

[3] https://www.ft.com/content/c1e64553-7451-4462-a9c4-8ec03f1d5536

[4] https://www.consilium.europa.eu/en/infographics/how-the-eu-is-helping-address-the-global-food-crisis/

[5] https://www.atlanticcouncil.org/in-depth-research-reports/issue-brief/russias-war-on-global-food-security/

[6] https://www.euronews.com/2022/06/19/global-food-crisis-looms-as-ukraine-struggles-to-export-its-grain-after-russian-invasion

[7] https://www.abc.net.au/news/2022-06-15/how-does-the-war-in-ukraine-impact-food-supply/101151574

[8] https://www.atlanticcouncil.org/in-depth-research-reports/issue-brief/russias-war-on-global-food-security/

[9] https://newint.org/features/2022/06/07/ukraine-war-has-hit-africa-food-security

[10] https://www.sipri.org/commentary/blog/2022/war-breadbasket-impacts-war-ukraine-food-security-and-stability-lebanon

[11] https://reliefweb.int/report/world/food-security-eu-step-its-support-african-caribbean-and-pacific-countries-response-russias-invasion-ukraine

[12] https://politicstoday.org/global-food-crisis-russia-ukraine-and-the-west/

[13] https://www.brusselstimes.com/world-all-news/235911/ukraine-grain-crisis-the-west-blames-russia-for-food-insecurity

[14] https://www.dw.com/en/russia-weaponizes-food-security-us-tells-un-meeting/a-61865923

[15] Ibid.

[16] https://www.state.gov/disarming-disinformation/russias-disinformation-cannot-hide-its-responsibility-for-the-global-food-crisis/

[17] https://www.politico.eu/article/europe-warns-africa-against-russias-food-crisis-propaganda/

[18] https://www.france24.com/en/africa/20220602-african-union-head-senegal-s-macky-sall-to-speak-to-putin-in-russia-on-friday.

[19] https://www.euractiv.com/section/global-europe/news/eu-steps-up-efforts-to-debunk-putins-food-security-propaganda/

[20] https://www.g7germany.de/resource/blob/974430/2057824/b4c9113bec507f0bd4b0389f6ac15ea7/2022-06-28-statement-on-global-food-security-data.pdf?download=1

[21] https://reliefweb.int/report/world/food-security-eu-step-its-support-african-caribbean-and-pacific-countries-response-russias-invasion-ukraine

[22] https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-61503049

Daniel Marco holds a first year of a Master’s Degree in International and European Studies specialized in the Management of European affairs at the University of Lille (France) and he is a recent graduate of a Master's Degree in International Relations and Geopolitics at Lille Catholic University. EU foreign policy, history and the geopolitics of the Middle East as well as EU’s relations with the Middle Eastern countries are among his research interests. Daniel speaks Arabic (classical and Egyptian), French, English, Spanish and has a basic knowledge of Greek.

Fox News host complains that learning about slavery makes (WHITE) people 'feel guilty'


Ariana Baio

July 11,2022

On Sunday's episode of Fox & Friends, co-hosts complained that Thomas Jefferson's home, Monticello, was becoming "woke" due to changes in the way Jefferson is perceived.

Jefferson, who owned 600 slaves throughout his life, had nearly 400 people enslaved on his plantation Monticello located in Virginia. In recent years, Monticello has re-framed the narrative surrounding Jefferson to include the history of enslaved people at the plantation.

Much of the information from Monticello's website focuses on Jefferson's hypocrisy as a slave-owner who also wrote "all men are created equal" in the Declaration of Independence.

The Fox and Friends hosts criticized this citing a recent New York Post article that included negative feedback from visitors who felt Jefferson's reputation was painted negatively.

Throughout the tour, visitors are educated about slavery and racism and much of the gift shop is filled with educational books about the topic.

Co-host Rachel Campos-Duffy said the museum's efforts to educate visitors about racism and slavery "makes you feel guilty and not so great about America."

Fox News host says 'diabolical' museum that made her feel 'ashamed' about slavery

www.youtube.com

Monticello published an op-ed on their website on July 4th encouraging people to have a conversation reflecting on how a "better understanding of our past will aid us in building a better future".

In response to The Post article criticizing Monticello's shift in focus, a spokesperson for Monticello said, "Our goal is to present an honest, inclusive history of Monticello in all its aspects as well as Jefferson’s contributions to the founding of the country,” said Jenn Lyon, a Monticello spokesperson.

Later on, Jeffery Tucker joined Brian Kilmeade to speak to his own experience at Monticello, calling it 'demoralizing' and 'heartbreaking'



"I just thought that maybe Monticello would be protected from this disease of wokeism," Tucker said.

Tucker said some older paintings have been replaced by "woke piece of art" and many of Jefferson's accomplishments are "diminished".

Projects like the New York Times' 1619 Project are focused on reframe the narrative of American history to place "the consequences of slavery and the contributions of black Americans at the very center of our national narrative."