Tamara Lich told 'very controversial' Pat King not to go to Ottawa protest, she tells inquiry

Lich also described the protest in Ottawa as a 'love fest' and said she saw no evidence to support reports of harassment and intimidation ROFLMAO

Author of the article: Ryan Tumilty, Christopher Nardi
Publishing date: Nov 03, 2022 

 

Tamara Lich testifies at the Public Order Emergency Commission in Ottawa on November 3, 2022. 

PHOTO BY PATRICK DOYLE/REUTERS


OTTAWA – Convoy leader Tamara Lich said the massive amount of money raised for the Freedom Convoy became an enormous source of tension among protest organizers.

While most of the money organizers raised became embroiled in legal disputes and was either returned to donors or left frozen in escrow accounts, the convoy raised more than $24 million across several platforms.

Lich, who is still facing criminal charges, said she was under constant pressure over the money, with people wanting her to spend it on sound systems for the protests or hot dogs for everyone.

“I just felt like the vultures are circling,” she said. “I had a lot of people coming up to me and… telling me what I needed to do with the money, what I should do with the money, could be doing with the money,” she said. “It was very overwhelming.”

She said people became focused on her because they assumed she had control over the funding.

“They just saw $10 million over my head.”

She agreed with previous testimony that there were “power struggles” between groups involved in the convoy and felt like some were just looking for an opportunity for self-promotion. She pointed out a group called “Taking Back Our Freedoms” in particular.

She denied that she had any desire to promote herself.

ROFLMAO

RECOMMENDED FROM EDITORIAL

Controversial convoy organizer Pat King speaks at inquiry: 'What's a little bit of horns for ten days?'

Freedom Convoy raised $24M but frozen funds didn't get to truckers

Lich also described the protest in Ottawa as a “love fest” and said she had seen no evidence to support testimony by local residents, businesses and police about harassment and intimidation. “I can’t say I ever witnessed any of that.”

JUST LIKE FOX NEWS AND GOP JAN 6 EXCUSES


Previous testimony on Thursday gave more insight into some of the divisions between organizing factions.

Lich said there were tensions between herself and Pat King, whom she described as “very controversial.” She confirmed she had a tense conversation with King about his involvement and that she’d both told him he should not come to Ottawa and to “check his ego” after e claimed he’d organized the convoy alone

She described herself as “concerned” about King’s controversial rhetoric. He had previously said in videos that Prime Minister Trudeau might “catch a bullet” or spoke of a conspiracy that there is a plan to depopulate the Anglo-Saxon race.

“I was getting messages and phone calls from a lot of people that were concerned that he was involved,” she said.

Benjamin Dichter, a former Conservative candidate who became a convoy organizer, testified before Lich (who described him as a friend) and said he was frustrated by the decision making. (HE GOT ALL THE CRYPTOCURRENCY DONATIONS)

Dichter complained about a deal that some convoy members struck with the City of Ottawa to move vehicles out of residential areas and onto Wellington Street, in front of Parliament Hill.

Dichter said the deal was a bad idea and the people pushing it weren’t aligned with the protesters broader goals.

“I think they were focused on ending the protests and getting everybody out of the city as quickly as possible,” he said.

Dichter said Keith Wilson, a lawyer that had represented the convoy, led them astray and seemed more interested in scoring political points.

“I thought we were getting professional counsel. We got Pat King in a suit.”

The commission also heard from James Bauder, a convoy organizer who published a controversial memorandum of understanding, calling for the Senate and the Governor General to work with a citizens’ commission taking over from the government.

His proposal would have suspended all COVID-19 mandates and refund any fines people had paid for breaching COVID rules.

Bauder said he stood by the document, but ultimately no one was willing to sign on

“It means nothing because nobody signed it. nobody entered into it.”

Several other organizers have testified that they didn’t want anything to do with Bauder’s memorandum. He confirmed he had written it himself without any legal help.

He said he didn’t want any political parties involved and saw the Senate as the last hope for citizens.

“This was just strictly the people of Canada to sit with their Senate.”

But Bauder contradicted himself later when he saw a press conference where another organizer suggested the convoy could sit with opposition parties in a coalition government and said that would be a good idea.

SEE https://plawiuk.blogspot.com/2022/11/lawyer-for-organizers-tells-inquiry-pat.html

FAKE COP
At 'African COP', continent's climate needs may go unmet

Patrick GALEY
Thu, November 3, 2022


It is being billed as the "African COP" but scientists and campaigners on the continent least responsible for climate change fear the UN summit that begins on Sunday in Egypt will once again leave them sidelined.

As the toll of climate-linked disasters mounts in debt-ridden countries across Africa, governments are demanding that rich polluters pay for the harm their emissions have already caused, known as "loss and damage".

"Historically, Africa is responsible for less than four percent of global emissions, but Africans are suffering some of the most brutal impacts of the climate crisis," said Ugandan campaigner Vanessa Nakate.

"We need financial support to cope with the loss and the damage we're experiencing across the continent. We need polluters to compensate for the destruction they've caused."

Richer governments rejected a call for a financial mechanism to address losses and damage at last year's climate talks in Glasgow and instead negotiators agreed to start a "dialogue" on financial compensation.

But as floods, heat waves and droughts sweep across the planet, hitting the most vulnerable hardest, activists are hoping the issue will take centre stage at COP27 in Egypt.
- African countries 'shortchanged' -

In Africa alone, extreme weather events have killed at least 4,000 people and displaced 19 million so far this year, a study by the Carbon Brief news service said last week.

The ongoing drought in East Africa is impacting the livelihoods of more than nine million people, and 1.4 million people have been displaced in recent weeks in the worst floods on record in Nigeria.

The UN's Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change in February warned that tens of millions of Africans face a future marked by drought, disease and displacement due to global heating.

"Multiple African countries are projected to face compounding risks from: reduced food production across crops, livestock and fisheries; increasing heat-related mortality; heat-related loss of labour productivity; and flooding from sea level rise," scientists wrote in a dedicated chapter on the continent.

Chukwumerije Okereke, a professor in environment and development at Britain's Reading University, said that African nations would demand greater action from the polluting countries that are driving climate change.

"African countries believe they have been significantly shortchanged because they are the most vulnerable to the impact of climate change," he told AFP.

"Ultimately, the best way to stave off a more devastating impact of climate change on the continent is through rapid decarbonisation."

Countries agreed at last year's UN climate talks in Glasgow to raise the ambition of their emissions-cutting plans. However, the UN says those additional measures would result in a pollution cut of less than one percent by 2030.

The Glasgow summit also produced a new strategy for financing the energy transition, with a group of rich nations committing to providing $8.5 billion to coal-dependent South Africa over three to five years -- in grants and loans -- to help its climate plan and catalyse private investment.

This week the World Bank said that South Africa, one of the world's largest greenhouse gas emitters, will require at least $500 billion to achieve carbon neutrality by 2050.

Susan Chomba, director of the African NGO Vital Landscapes, said governments should use COP27 to push green development investment on the continent.

"We do need development for our people and we need to use the resources that are within our reach on the continent," she said.

"The war in Ukraine has exposed the naked risk of overdependence on fossil fuels, even for the richest economies, but also the ripple effect that it is having on energy fertiliser and food prices on the continent."

- 'Fake promises' -

Progress at recent COPs has been stymied by a failed promise by rich nations to provide at least $100 billion annually to developing ones to help decarbonise while adapting to climate impacts.

"The key point that I'm really looking forward to is that COP27 is going to be a COP where we're going to be able to build up trust," said Ineza Grace from the Loss and Damage Youth Collaborative.

"All of those fake promises have never been accomplished and we are the generation that is kind of living in the hotspot. But we are also a generation that does not want to sit down and just continue to be victims."

Okereke said to expect "constructive ambiguity" around loss and damage finance.

"If they do set up such a facility then it might still be four or five years before the structure or the functionalities of such a facility is agreed," said Okereke.

"So poor countries should be aware that while having a facility is a victory, it may not necessarily translate to more dollars coming to them."

After six years, UN climate summit returns to Africa

The Associated Press
Wanjohi Kabukuru
Publishing date: Nov 03, 2022

MOMBASA, Kenya (AP) — The U.N. climate summit is back in Africa after six years and four consecutive Europe-based conferences.

The 27th annual Conference of the Parties of the U.N. Framework Convention on Climate Change — better known as COP27 — will be held in the resort city of Sharm el-Sheikh in Egypt and begins next week. It’s been branded as the “African COP”, with officials and activists hoping the conference’s location will mean the continent’s interests are better represented in climate negotiations.

Hosts Egypt say the meeting represents a unique opportunity for Africa to align climate change goals with the continent’s other aims, like improving living standards and making countries more resilient to weather extremes. Organizers expect over 40,000 participants, the highest number ever for a climate summit on the continent.

Ever since the conference’s first iteration in Berlin in 1995, the U.N. climate summit continues to rotate annually among the five U.N. classified regions: Africa, Asia, Latin America and the Caribbean, central and eastern Europe, and western Europe. It’s the fifth time that an African nation has held the U.N. climate summit, with Morocco, South Africa and Kenya all serving as former hosts.

The first African summit, held in Marrakech in 2001, passed landmark accords on climate funding and made other key decisions on land use and forestry. The following three meetings on the continent had some success on issues like adapting to climate change, technology and sowing the seeds for the Paris Agreement in 2015 years earlier. Marrakech is also the last African city to host the event, having hosted a second COP in 2016, that aimed to implement some of the Paris goals.

The Paris Agreement, considered a major success of the U.N. climate summits, saw nations agree to limit warming to “well below” 2 degrees Celsius (3.6 degrees Fahrenheit), with an aim of curbing it to 1.5 degrees Celsius (2.7 degrees Fahrenheit).

And although experts don’t expect agreement between countries to reach the same scale as Paris, hopes on the continent are high for the upcoming conference.

Mithika Mwenda, who heads the Pan African Climate Justice Alliance, told The Associated Press that the summit “presents a unique opportunity to place Africa at the center of global climate negotiations” and hoped the conference “truly delivers for the African people.”

Mwenda said that the “special needs and circumstances” of the continent need to be considered as it attempts to both increase access to electricity for millions of people while addressing climate change and limiting the use of fossil fuels.

He added negotiations must prioritize how vulnerable countries will adapt to climate change, address compensation from high-polluting countries to poorer ones, known as “loss and damage”, and seek avenues for financing for both a move to cleaner energy and building resilience to climate change. Many developing countries look to the U.S. and much of Europe, who have contributed the largest share of emissions over time, to pay for damage caused by climate change.

So far, pledges by rich countries on climate finance, such as the $100 billion-a-year promise to help poorer nations meets their climate goals, have not been met. The Egyptian organizers said the summit should focus on how countries can implement pledges made in previous years.

“Africa’s hopes for COP27 is that there has to be progress on a new goal on financing,” said Jean-Paul Adam, who heads the climate change division at the U.N. Economic Commission for Africa, adding there needs to be “clarity as to what will be provided as grants and what will be provided as concessional loans and the remainder being dealt with through prudential private sector investment.”

The onus is also on industrialized countries to rapidly reduce emissions so that the global climate goal of limiting warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius can be achieved, Mwenda said. African countries account for just 3% of total global greenhouse gas emissions but experts say they are highly vulnerable to the impacts of climate change in large part because they lack the ability to quickly adapt to the warming climate.

The climate conference will be a real test of world leaders’ commitment to addressing climate change, said Landry Ninteretse, regional director for the environmental group 350Africa.org.

“We are tired of years of empty talk and broken promises,” said Ninteretse. “We are now demanding nothing else but robust funding mechanisms that address loss and damage in a fair, accessible and transparent way.”

Ninteretse agreed that “the biggest emitters must commit to rapidly cut emissions” and “help the nations most vulnerable to climate change” by financing climate initiatives.

Past COPs have seen disagreements and hardline positions emerge as national interests clash, a concern for those hoping tangible results will come out of the negotiations.

“The discussions tend to be protracted, uncompromising and acrimonious at times,” said Mwenda, a veteran of the climate negotiations circuit. “But in 2015, the world ratified the Paris Agreement, which was a major milestone.”

But the success of the COP in Paris was the exception, rather than the rule, experts say, with a lot of work still to do to address climate change.

“Negotiations have lasted three decades but the impacts of the climate crisis, manifested by floods, droughts, among other extremes, persist,” Mwenda said.

——

Associated Press climate and environmental coverage receives support from several private foundations. See more about AP’s climate initiative here. The AP is solely responsible for all content.

Iraq landslide disaster throws spotlight on informal shrines

AFP - Yesterday

When a landslide buried part of an Islamic shrine in Iraq this summer, killing eight pilgrims, sorrow quickly turned to anger because the site was run without oversight from state or religious authorities.


Shiite Muslim devotees gather in Iraq's central holy shrine city of Karbala on September 16, 2022© Mohammed SAWAF

The deadly disaster struck in August near Karbala when tonnes of soggy earth and rock collapsed onto the Shiite shrine Qattarat al-Imam Ali, dedicated to the imam's journey on his way to battle in AD 657.



Iraqi rescue workers search for survivors trapped under the rubble of the Qattarat al-Imam Ali shrine following a landslide, on the outskirts of the holy city of Karbala on August 21, 2022© Mohammed SAWAF

By the time the search-and-rescue effort was over, three trapped children had been brought out alive -- but the bodies of two men, five women and one child had also been pulled from the rubble.



By the time the search-and-rescue effort was over, three trapped children had been brought out alive -- but the bodies of two men, five women and one child had also been recovered from the rubble© Mohammed SAWAF

The shared grief quickly gave way to public fury when Iraqi government and religious officials said they were not responsible for the site, or for policing its building and safety standards.

The shrine was one of hundreds that are being run privately and are therefore unregulated -- many of which, some critics charge, operate with profit rather than piety as the main motive.

Karbala resident Maitham Abbas lashed out at what he called a "fake shrine", dismissing it as a money-making scheme.

Since the tragedy, politicians, clerics and religious officials have acknowledged the need to better enforce building standards in a war-scarred country generally plagued by crumbling infrastructure.



Since the tragedy, politicians, clerics and religious officials have acknowledged the need to better enforce building standards in a war-scarred country generally plagued by crumbling infrastructure© Mohammed SAWAF

Iraq's Waqf, the body in charge of managing Shiite mosques, tombs and other places of worship, reports that only 135 out of Iraq's 664 known sanctuaries are formally registered.

The others are beyond Waqf's remit and derive their legitimacy from the faith invested in them by flocks of visiting pilgrims, many of whom give what they can in donations.

There are "around 100 shrines dedicated to the daughters of Imam Hassan", who passed only briefly through Iraq, said Hashem al-Awadi, deputy head of the government department responsible for Shiite shrines.



Most Iraqis follow Shiism, a strand of Islam that was long suppressed under dictator Saddam Hussein, a Sunni Muslim, before his secular Ba'athist regime was toppled by the US-led invasion of 2003© AHMAD AL-RUBAYE

"Where does all this offspring come from?" he asked incredulously.

- Informal pilgrimage sites -

Most Iraqis follow Shiism, a strand of Islam that was long suppressed under dictator Saddam Hussein, a Sunni Muslim, before his secular Ba'athist regime was toppled by the US-led invasion of 2003.


Shiite Muslim devotees gather in Iraq's holy shrine city of Karbala on September 16, 2022, the eve of Arbaeen marking 40 days after the holy day of Ashura commemorating the seventh century killing of Imam Hussein© Mohammed SAWAF

Under Saddam, "an informal approach was cultivated by the people, indeed by the Shiite institutions, to avoid being attached to the state", said Sabrina Mervin, a historian specialising in Shiism.


Shiite Muslim pilgrims march towards Iraq's holy city of Karbala to attend the Arbaeen religious commemoration, on September 13, 2022 near the city of Hilla© Hussein Faleh

The post-Saddam years were marred by sectarian violence but also saw a Shiite revival as millions of faithful once more flocked to their holy sites, especially the Shiite shrine cities of Najaf and Karbala.

Hundreds of smaller shrines opened up -- many outside the purview of the religious authorities, which are often reluctant to proactively check building standards for fear of offending believers.

The Shiite revival was driven not by institutions but by "pilgrim practices which evolve from the grassroots, from the religiosity of the faithful", said Mervin, of the French National Centre for Scientific Research.

"If there are pilgrims... there is necessarily a foundation story that makes a place a holy place," she said.

"The religious authorities have no arguments to prevent pilgrims from showing their attachment and devotion to major Shiite figures, even in places that are unrecognised."

- Registration can be tricky -

Most such sites are dedicated to relatives or descendants of Imam Ali, the son-in-law of the Prophet Mohammed and the founder of the Shiite strand of Islam.

One is located on the side of a motorway south of Baghdad, dating back to the 1980s and not registered by the Waqf, where faithful offer chocolate snacks and small cash donations.

Pilgrim Kamel Rahim, 78, was praying to be healed from sickness at the graves of three distant descendants of Imam Ali -- Sayyed Ahmed, Sayyed Ali and their father Al-Mozher.

Rahim explained that local residents had "discovered stones on which their names were inscribed. They dug and found two graves."

Awadi, the state official, said more shrines should seek official recognition, which offers them "legal weight and stature" as well as state development funding, and grants their guardians the status of civil servants.

But the process of authenticating and approving a shrine is protracted, he said, as it involves an assessment of its founding story and "a lineage investigation" of the deceased who is revered there.

This, he explained, can be a sensitive subject, especially if the request is denied.

"If you report a fake shrine," he said, "how many people do you think will believe you, and how many will accuse you of straying from the path of religion?"

ak/tgg/gde/dwo/fz/smw

ISRAEL FASCISTS SCARE BEJESUS OUTTA ZIONISTS

Israel vote cements rise of extreme right

Rosie SCAMMELL

Thu, November 3, 2022 

Israel's election this week cemented the rise of the country's extreme right, with firebrand Itamar Ben-Gvir set to gain a powerful position in government.

After leading an energetic campaign centred on security and Jewish identity, Ben-Gvir celebrated as his Religious Zionism alliance achieved third place -- and likely kingmaker status -- in the November 1 vote.

"It's time that we returned to be the masters of our house in our country," he told cheering supporters Wednesday, after exit polls showed the nationalist bloc more than doubling its parliamentary seats.

Religious Zionism is expected to play a central role in a new coalition led by Benjamin Netanyahu, Israel's veteran leader whose right-wing Likud won the most votes.

Securing the premiership for Netanyahu -- who faces corruption charges he denies -- is impossible without the backing of Ben-Gvir and his Religious Zionism ally, the more discreet Bezalel Smotrich.

According to the electoral commission in results issued late Thursday, the right-wing bloc won a clear majority of 64 seats -- made up of 32 seats for Netanyahu's Likud party, 18 for ultra-Orthodox parties and 14 for Religious Zionism.

This gives the extreme right unprecedented influence, securing Ben-Gvir's transformation from political pariah to powerbroker.

Such a shift was orchestrated by political puppeteer Netanyahu, according to researcher Yossi Klein Halevi.

"Netanyahu whitewashed the far right, which he needed for his coalition, and so many Israelis saw it as simply a tougher version of the Likud," said Halevi, from Jerusalem's Shalom Hartman Institute.

- Religious hardliners -

Ben-Gvir lives in a settlement of religious hardliners in Hebron, in the occupied West Bank, but has attempted to moderate his public appearance in the run-up to elections.

"When I said 20 years ago that I wanted to expel all the Arabs, I don't think that anymore. But I will not apologise," he told AFP ahead of the vote.

Before entering the political mainstream, Ben-Gvir hung a portrait in his living room of Baruch Goldstein, the Israeli who killed 29 Palestinian worshippers at a Hebron mosque in 1994.

The picture was taken down before he entered parliament last year, but Ben-Gvir still regularly shows up at flashpoint sites in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

As a policymaker, his sights are set on annexing the West Bank and ensuring Israel's security services use more force in countering Palestinian unrest.

The United Nations says recent months have been the deadliest period in years in the West Bank, with near daily army raids and an increase in clashes and attacks on Israeli forces.

Regardless of whether such steps receive support from Likud or their other coalition allies, ultra-Orthodox parties, Netanyahu will have to make some concessions to Religious Zionism to maintain their support.

"Netanyahu will have a hard time controlling his new partners," said Halevi.

"Because he will be beholden to them to pass legislation that would extricate him from his corruption trial," added the researcher, who authored a book about his own attraction to Jewish extremism as a teenager.

- 'More violence and humiliation' -

For Shlomo Fischer, a sociologist at Jerusalem's Jewish People Policy Institute, the poll results follow a long-term phenomenon.

"Israeli society is becoming more right-wing and in certain ways more traditional, more ethno-religious, nationalist," he said.

The electoral success of Religious Zionism has raised fears among political opponents and Arab-Israelis, who for years have been at the receiving end of Ben-Gvir's vitriol.

Jaafar Farah, head of the Mossawa Center that campaigns for the rights of Arab-Israelis, said "people are afraid of the measures they are going to put in place".

"There is anger here because of the fragmentation of Arab parties," he added, which represent 20 percent of the population.

Four Arab-led parties united in 2020 but have since split into three, with one failing to make it into parliament in the latest election.

Mansour Abbas, whose Raam party joined the outgoing coalition, blamed inaction for the emergence of the right-wing government.

"We're bringing him (Netanyahu) back to power, we're offering him this gift, because we're being passive," he said Wednesday.

Raam will sit firmly in opposition along with the Arab-led Hadash-Taal alliance, whose activist Feda Tabouni warned Israel was becoming "a more racist, fascist state".

"The expected scenario is that there will be more laws issued, more violence and humiliation of people in the West Bank and the occupied (Palestinian) territories," she told AFP.

bur-rsc/bs/noc/pjm/smw

Escape from Foxconn: Workers recount Covid chaos at iPhone factory

Thu, November 3, 2022 

Zhang Yao recalls the moment he realised something had gone deeply wrong at the Chinese mega-factory where he and hundreds of thousands of other workers assembled iPhones and other high-end electronics.

In early October, supervisors suddenly warned him that 3,000 colleagues had been taken into quarantine after someone tested positive for Covid-19 at the factory.

"They told us not to take our masks off," Zhang, speaking under a pseudonym for fear of retaliation, told AFP by telephone.

What followed was a weeks-long ordeal including food shortages and the ever-present fear of infection, before he finally escaped on Tuesday.

Zhang's employer, Taiwanese tech giant Foxconn, has said it faces a "protracted battle" against infections and imposed a "closed loop" bubble around its sprawling campus in central China's Zhengzhou city.

Local authorities locked down the area surrounding the major Apple supplier's factory on Wednesday, but not before reports emerged of employees fleeing on foot and a lack of adequate medical care at the plant.

China is the last major economy committed to a zero-Covid strategy, persisting with snap lockdowns, mass testing and lengthy quarantines in a bid to stamp out emerging outbreaks.

But new variants have tested officials' ability to snuff out flare-ups and dragged down economic activity with the threat of sudden disruptions.

- Desperation -

Multiple workers have recounted scenes of chaos and increasing disorganisation at Foxconn's complex of workshops and dormitories, which form a city-within-a-city near Zhengzhou's airport.

Zhang told AFP that "positive tests and double lines (on antigen tests) had become a common sight" in his workshop before he left.

"Of course we were scared, it was so close to us."

"People with fevers are not guaranteed to receive medicine," another Foxconn worker, a 30-year-old man who also asked to remain anonymous, told AFP.

"We are drowning," he said.

Those who decided to stop working were not offered meals at their dormitories, Zhang said, adding that some were able to survive on personal stockpiles of instant noodles.

Kai, a worker at in the complex who gave an interview to state-owned Sanlian Lifeweek, told the magazine Foxconn's "closed loop" involved cordoning off paths between dormitory compounds and the factory, and complained he was left to his own devices after being thrown in quarantine.

TikTok videos geolocated by AFP showed mounds of uncollected rubbish outside buildings in late October, while employees in N95 masks squeezed onto packed shuttle buses taking them from dormitories to their work stations.

A 27-year-old woman working at Foxconn, who asked not to be named, told AFP a roommate who tested positive for Covid was sent back to her dormitory on Thursday morning, crying, after she decided to hand in her notice while in quarantine.

"Now the three of us are living in the same room: one a confirmed case and two of us testing positive on the rapid test, still waiting for our nucleic acid test results," the worker told AFP.

Many became so desperate by the end of last month that they attempted to walk back to their hometowns to get around Covid transport curbs.

As videos of people dragging their suitcases down motorways and struggling up hills spread on Chinese social media, the authorities rushed in to do damage control.

The Zhengzhou city government on Sunday said it had arranged for special buses to take employees back to their hometowns.

Surrounding Henan province has officially reported a spike of more than 600 Covid cases since the start of this week.

- Distrust -

When Zhang finally attempted to leave the Foxconn campus on Tuesday, he found the company had set up obstacle after obstacle.

"There were people with loudspeakers advertising the latest Foxconn policy, saying that each day there would be a 400 yuan ($55) bonus," Zhang told AFP.

A crowd of employees gathered at a pick-up point in front of empty buses but were not let on.

People in hazmat suits, known colloquially as "big whites" in China, claimed they had been sent by the city government.

"They tried to persuade people to stay in Zhengzhou... and avoid going home," Zhang said.

"But when we asked to see their work ID, they had nothing to show us, so we suspected they were actually from Foxconn."

Foxconn pointed to the local government's lockdown orders from Wednesday when asked by AFP if it attempted to stop employees from leaving, without giving any further response.

The company had on Sunday said it was "providing employees with complimentary three meals a day" and cooperating with the government to provide transport home.

Eventually, the crowd of unhappy workers who had gathered decided to take matters into their own hands and walked over seven kilometres on foot to the nearest highway entry ramp.

There, more people claiming to be government officials pleaded with the employees to wait for the bus.

The crowd had no choice as the road was blocked.

Buses eventually arrived at five in the afternoon -- nearly nine hours after Zhang had begun his attempt to secure transport.

"They were trying to grind us down," he said.

Back in his hometown, Zhang is now waiting out the home quarantine period required by the local government.

"All I feel is, I've finally left Zhengzhou," he told AFP.

iPhone factory lockdown shows risks

of China dependence, analysts say

Sébastien RICCI

Thu, November 3, 2022 

The lockdown of Foxconn's Zhengzhou factory, the world's biggest producer of iPhones, has highlighted some of the risks of relying on zero-Covid China's manufacturing sector, analysts told AFP.

Foxconn, Apple's principal subcontractor, has seen a surge in Covid-19 cases at its Zhengzhou site, leading the company to lock down the vast complex in a bid to keep the virus in check.

Images then emerged of panicking workers fleeing the site on foot in the wake of allegations of poor conditions at the facility, which employs hundreds of thousands of workers.

Foxconn is China's biggest private sector employer, with over a million people working across the country in its around thirty factories and research institutes.

But Zhengzhou is the Taiwanese giant's crown jewel, churning out iPhones in quantities not seen anywhere else.

"In a normal situation, almost all the iPhone production is happening in Zhengzhou," said Ivan Lam, an analyst with specialist firm Counterpoint.

- Risk of 'strong dependence' -

Apple manufactures more than 90 percent of its products in China, which is also one of its most important markets.

"For Apple, it is once again a bad example in terms of the stability of production chains," Alicia Garcia Herrero, Asia-Pacific manager for Natixis bank, told AFP.

Experts say the company’s heavy dependence on China "brings potential risks, especially when the US-China trade war shows no signs of de-escalating," according to Dezan Shira & Associates, a consulting firm.

Opened in 2010, the Zhengzhou factory employs up to 300,000 people who live on-site all year round  -- creating a sprawling tech hub known as "iPhone city".

It is made up of three factories, one of which produces the iPhone 14 -- Apple's newest handset model.

Apple did not respond to AFP's request for comment on how exactly the lockdown will affect its production.

Analyst Lam estimates the partial stopping of work at the site resulted in a loss of "10 to 30 percent" of output, but said part of the production has also been temporarily moved to other Foxconn sites in China.

According to Foxconn, the site is currently operating a "closed loop" with the workers avoiding all contact with the outside world, while their daily bonuses have been quadrupled.

"This incident may have a limited impact," on worldwide iPhone production, estimated analyst Ming-Chi Kuo, who specialises in Apple products.

"But suppliers in China must learn to improve closed-loop production efficiency in response to the zero-Covid policy," he added.

- Looking elsewhere -

China is the last major economy committed to a zero-Covid strategy, persisting with snap lockdowns, mass testing and lengthy quarantines in a bid to stamp out emerging outbreaks.

But new variants have tested local officials' ability to snuff out flare-ups faster than they can spread, causing much of the country to live under an ever-changing mosaic of Covid curbs.

Apple has already begun outsourcing part of its production to India and is eyeing Vietnam in a bid to wean itself off Chinese manufacturing -- a trend accelerated by Covid.

But that's not so simple -- last year, nearly 7.5 million iPhones were made in India, just three percent of Apple's total production.

"Increasing the capacity of factories (in India) is difficult," Lam said.

The biggest iPhone factory in the world just got locked down, but some workers managed to escape days ago


VCG/VCG via Getty 

Prarthana Prakash

Wed, November 2, 2022 

China’s “COVID-zero” policy has led to numerous lockdowns, supply-chain nightmares, and the slowing of its economy.

But the country is sticking with it. And after several COVID cases were reported by Bloomberg, China is locking down the largest iPhone manufacturing plant in the world for seven days to try to curb the spread of the disease, Bloomberg reported Wednesday after the local government announced it over WeChat.

The lockdown announcement comes days after reports that several workers have fled for fear of getting trapped. One worker identified by Zhuo by the Washington Post said that he and 200 other people made a break for it while the company was still operating as a “closed loop,” or contained bubbles to minimize virus exposure, but not fully locked down. He climbed a seven-foot wall and walked several miles before someone gave him a ride home.

Foxconn quadrupled daily bonuses for those deployed at the factory to 400 yuan ($55) a day from 100 yuan in an effort to get them to stay, Reuters reported Tuesday, citing Foxconn’s official WeChat account.

The factory employs 200,000 people, earning it the nickname “iPhone city,” and workers who test positive for COVID will be forced into mandatory isolation, Bloomberg reported.

The area near Foxconn Technology’s plant in Zhengzhou has been cleared of vehicles and people who were not medical or other essential workers. The city reported 359 cases on Tuesday—a threefold jump from a day earlier.

A lockdown means that Foxconn employees will not be allowed to go in and out of the factory for work until at least Nov. 9. The plant will continue to operate in a bubble, according to Bloomberg. However, it is unclear how Foxconn will facilitate production with fewer workers than usual.

Foxconn did not immediately return Fortune’s request for comment.

The Taiwanese company Hon Hai Precision Industry owns the Zhengzhou plant, which alone produces four out of five of Apple’s most recent iPhone models.

The lockdown will likely hurt the production and shipment of iPhones in the lead-up to the holiday season. In September, Apple also launched its new line of handsets, the iPhone 14. During its fourth-quarter earnings call last Thursday, the company said the supply for its new model was constrained. The upcoming holidays will be critical for Apple as more consumers seek to buy gadgets at this time of year.

To address the gap in supply, Foxconn is reportedly increasing production at another factory in Shenzhen, according to Reuters. It has implemented closed loops to minimize virus exposure in March and July this year at another factory location in China.

Workers have been frustrated with the strict measures; many have taken to social media to talk about it. Foxconn denied rumors about the death of its employees in its dormitory, Bloomberg reported Tuesday.

This story was originally featured on Fortune.com

Yet another lockdown in China will test the world’s biggest iPhone factory’s “closed loop” management system

Ananya Bhattacharya
Wed, November 2, 2022

The industrial park that houses Foxconn’s main iPhone plant in China’s Zhengzhou is going into a strict lockdown for a week.

As covid-19 cases rise in and around the iPhone maker’s factory, the government is barring citizens from leaving their homes from Nov. 2-9. No vehicles, except those ferrying essentials, will be allowed on the road.

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Technically, the iPhone factory can’t let workers or parts for assembly in and out.

The measure isn’t entirely surprising: Curbs to contain covid-19 have been closing in on the industrial area for weeks now. Any signs of restrictions lifting in the capital of the Henan province have been dismissed as performative by locals who have been grappling with violent enforcement, inadequate health care, and mental stress.

But Foxconn has tried to maintain the illusion that it’s been business as usual. Workers, equipped with masks and sanitizers, continue their work under a “closed-loop” management system—they live and work in the factory complex. But is it really working?

Foxconn’s workers are in distress

The larger sacrifice of residing and working on site wasn’t the end of workers’ woes:

🍲For a couple weeks, Foxconn banned all dine-in at canteens, requiring workers to take their meals in their dormitories. It provided three meals free of charge daily, but it wasn’t always in prime condition

🚪Workers could only take a few routes across the complex since many entrances were shut

🤒Foxconn apparently didn’t pay much heed to those affected by the virus. There was no food or medicine provided, and employees who tested positive were isolated in nearby unfinished apartment buildings, according to China Labor Watch

🏃While the factory claims it has been arranging transport for workers who want to go home, videos on social media show employees lugging suitcases and jumping fences. The fear of lockdown and unsafe working conditions has been compelling thousands to flee.

Foxconn’s Zhengzhou iPhone factory, by the digits

200,000: Workers in the Zhengzhou plant; the largest iPhone production site in the world, of which around have have reportedly left

45%: Share of Foxconn’s revenues that come from Apple

80%: Foxconn’s Zhengzhou facility is responsible for the bulk of the iPhone 14 series production, according to Counterpoint senior analyst Ivan Lam.

10%: Share of global iPhone production hit when the Zhengzhou factory abruptly adopted its “closed-loop” strategy, according to TF International Securities analyst Ming-Chi Kuo

30%: Apple’s iPhone production to slump in November due to lockdown restrictions

400 yuan ($55): Daily bonuses for Foxconn employees have quadrupled from 100 yuan, according to the official WeChat account of Foxconn’s Zhengzhou plant

25 miles: How far one worker walked to flee the lockdown

Unknown: How many employees have been infected, how many new cases are occuring in the factory, and how many—if any—have received treatment

China’s zero-covid strategy is hurting business

To contain the resurgence of Covid, the Chinese government has given cities the power to adopt snap lockdowns, mass testing, and lengthy quarantines. To reduce the impact of the sudden and drastic measures, several businesses from battery factories to ports have adopted closed loop systems. Drone maker DJI and automaker BYD also jumped on the bandwagon. Ahead of the holiday season, Foxconn has adopted the strategy to keep production running, too.

Besides siloing off workers in covid-hit areas, Foxconn is also trying to make up for the loss in production in Zhengzhou with its factories elsewhere, like Shenzhen. Foxconn’s India plant could’ve been another option, but it’s a much smaller-scale operation.

Regardless, Apple, a trillion dollar behemoth, can likely stomach the production slowdown. But not all businesses can.

Several companies are bogged down by productivity losses. The world’s factory keeps shutting and reopening parts, hurting economic activity across industries and across the world. Players in retail, food and beverage, tourism, and more, are suffering because of the constant uncertainty, too.

The mounting protests, anti-lockdown graffiti, and altercations with the police are proof the public is irate about not being able to resume normal life, like much of the rest of the world.

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