At least five killed, Kenya's parliament on fire amid protests over tax bill

A torched military vehicle burns outside of the Parliament during a protest against tax hikes in Nairobi, Kenya, on Tuesday. Photo by Daniel Irungu/EPA-EFE

June 25 (UPI) -- Human rights groups said at least five people were shot and killed amid protests in the capital city of Nairobi that left portions of Kenya's parliament building on fire Tuesday.

In addition to the five deaths at least 31 people were injured, including 13 shot with live bullets, four hit with rubber bullets and three struck with launched canisters, Amnesty International Kenya, the Kenya Medical Association, the Law Society of Kenya and Police Reforms Working Group Kenya said in a joint statement.

"We urge the State and all parties to de-escalate the situation and stop the use of lethal force to protect life," the groups said. "We urge the authorities to desist from reportedly threatening mass media houses. We appeal for safe medical corridors for all medical personnel and ambulances to access the injured."

Some demonstrators broke through police lines in the capital of Nairobi to break into the building where legislators had passed a finance bill that would lead to raising taxes.

Hundreds of protesters in the streets essentially paralyzed activity and slowed movement around the capital and demonstrators took part in running battles with police.

Police fired rubber bullets and teargas to disperse the crowds.

Auma Obama, a Kenyan-British activist and half-sister of former U.S. President Barack Obama, was teargassed on live television during an interview with CNN. Obama stood with a group of young demonstrators when they were teargassed.

"I'm here because look at what's happening," Obama said. "Young Kenyans are demonstrating for their rights. They are demonstrating with flags and banners."

Local media reports said that Kenyan lawmakers escaped the Parliament building through an underground tunnel as protesters broke into the complex.

The Kenyan chapter of Amnesty International said it was investigating the disappearance of 12 people the night before the planned protests on Parliament.

"We are horrified by some of the testimonies we have heard over the last 12 hours," Irungu Houghton, executive director of Amnesty Kenya said. He said the missing people were allegedly taken away by people by those "uniformed and not uniformed."

Faith Odhiambo, president of the Law Society of Kenya, charged intelligence officers with carrying out illegal acts.

"Evidently, this was not an arrest as the police did not identify themselves or engage in any conversation prior to the arrest to inform him of his rights," she said.

At least five killed, parliament set ablaze in Kenya tax protests

Police shot at protesters as they breached the parliament complex in Nairobi on Tuesday, with at least five demonstrators killed and dozens more wounded. Angry over proposed tax hikes, many protesters across the country are calling for President William Ruto to leave office.

Issued on: 25/06/2024 -

Protesters hold flags and chant anti-government slogans inside the Kenyan Parliament compound after storming the building during a strike to protest tax hikes in downtown Nairobi, June 25, 2024. © Luis Tato, AFP

By:FRANCE 24

The mainly youth-led rallies, which began last week, have caught Ruto's government off guard, with Ruto saying over the weekend he was ready to talk to the protesters.

But tensions sharply escalated on Tuesday afternoon, as crowds began to throw stones at police and push back against barricades, making their way towards the parliament complex, which was sealed off by police in full riot gear.

Police fired at crowds massing outside the parliament building, where lawmakers had been debating a contentious bill featuring tax hike proposals.

"At least five people have been shot dead. Thirty-one people have been injured," the Kenya Medical Association said in a statement.

The Kenya Human Rights Commission had earlier said in a statement on X that: "Police have shot four protesters, as witnessed by KHRC, killing one."

Shortly before, Irungu Houghton, the executive director of Amnesty International Kenya, told AFP that "human rights observers are now reporting the increasing use of live bullets by the National Police Service in the capital of Nairobi".

"Safe passage for medical officers to treat the many wounded is now urgent," he said

A Reuters journalist counted the bodies of at least five protesters outside parliament. A paramedic, Vivian Achista, said at least 10 had been shot dead.

Another paramedic, Richard Ngumo, said more than 50 people had been wounded by gunfire. He was lifting two injured protesters into an ambulance outside parliament.

Kenya's internet service also suffered "major disruption" on Tuesday, global web monitor NetBlocks said.

"Live network data show a major disruption to internet connectivity in #Kenya; the incident comes amidst a deadly crackdown by police on #RejectFinanceBill2024 protesters a day after authorities claimed there would be no internet shutdown," the watchdog said on X, formerly Twitter.

Anger over a cost-of-living crisis spiralled into nationwide rallies last week, with demonstrators calling for the finance bill to be scrapped.

Despite a heavy police presence, thousands of protesters had earlier marched through Nairobi's business district, pushing back against barricades as they headed towards parliament.

Police in full riot gear were firing tear gas and rubber bullets into the crowd, according to AFP journalists.

As protesters gained ground in their push towards parliament, many were livestreaming the action earlier in the day as they sang, chanted and beat drums.

Crowds also marched in the port city of Mombasa, the opposition bastion of Kisumu, and Ruto's stronghold of Eldoret, images on Kenyan TV channels showed.

'At a crossroads'

Several organisations, including Amnesty International Kenya, said at least 200 people were wounded in last week's protests in Nairobi.

Amnesty's Kenya chapter posted on X Tuesday that "the pattern of policing protests is deteriorating fast", urging the government to respect demonstrators' right to assembly.

On Monday, ahead of the rallies, the rights body said Kenya was "at a crossroads".

"Despite mass arrests and injuries, the protests have continued to grow, emphasising the public's widespread discontent," it said, warning that "the escalation of force could lead to more fatalities and legal repercussions."

Rights watchdogs have accused the authorities of abducting protesters in violation of the law.

The Kenya Human Rights Commission said the abductions had mostly occurred at night and were "conducted by police officers in civilian clothes and unmarked cars", calling for the "unconditional release of all abductees".

Police have not responded to AFP requests for comment on the allegations.

The protesters have also deployed unconventional tactics, including asking bars to stop playing music at midnight on the weekend as party-goers burst into chants of "Ruto must go" and "Reject finance bill!"

Their demonstrations have drawn support from some Anglican and Catholic church leaders.

Debt mountain

The cash-strapped government agreed last week to roll back several tax increases.

But it still intends to raise other taxes, saying they are necessary for filling the state coffers and cutting reliance on external borrowing.

Kenya has a huge debt mountain whose servicing costs have ballooned because of a fall in the value of the local currency over the last two years, making interest payments on foreign-currency loans more expensive.

The tax hikes will pile further pressure on Kenyans, with well-paid jobs remaining out of reach for many young people.

After the government agreed to scrap levies on bread purchases, car ownership and financial and mobile services, the treasury warned of a budget shortfall of 200 billion shillings ($1.56 billion).

The government now intends to target an increase in fuel prices and export taxes to fill the void left by the changes, a move critics say will make life more expensive in a country already saddled with high inflation.

Kenya has one of the most dynamic economies in East Africa but a third of its 52 million people live in poverty.

(FRANCE 24 with Reuters, AFP)

Police open fire on demonstrators trying to storm Kenya parliament, several dead

Issued on: 25/06/2024 -

Police opened fire on demonstrators trying to storm Kenya's legislature on Tuesday, with at least five protesters killed, dozens wounded and sections of the parliament building set ablaze as lawmakers inside passed legislation to raise taxes. For more, protester and journalist Vivianne Wandera joins FRANCE 24 to share what she saw on the ground.

01:31  Video by: FRANCE 24

'Chaotic day in Kenya': Protesters enter parliament, bodies seen in streets nearby

Issued on: 25/06/2024 - 

Part of Kenya's parliament building was on fire Tuesday as thousands of protesters opposing a new finance bill entered and legislators fled, in the most direct assault on the government in decades. Journalists saw at least three bodies outside the complex where police had opened fire. Protesters had demanded that legislators vote against the bill imposing new taxes on a country, East Africa's economic hub, where frustrations over the high cost of living have simmered for years. FRANCE 24's Olivia Bizot reports from Nairobi.

02:14  Video by: Olivia BIZOT

Indians march to end 'slavery' after worker death shakes Italy

"We come here to work, not to die,"

Latina (Italy) (AFP) – Thousands of Indian farm labourers urged an end to "slavery" in Italy on Tuesday after the gruesome death of a worker shone a light on the brutal exploitation of undocumented migrants.

25/06/2024 -

Indians have worked in the Agro Pontino -- the Pontine Marshes -- since the mid 1980s. © Tiziana FABI / AFP

Satnam Singh, 31, who had been working without legal papers, died last week after his arm was sliced off by a machine. The farmer he was working for dumped him by the road, along with his severed limb.

"He was thrown out like a dog. There is exploitation every day, we suffer it every day, it must end now," said Gurmukh Singh, head of the Indian community in the Lazio region of central Italy.

"We come here to work, not to die," he told AFP.

Children held up colourful signs reading "Justice for Satnam Singh" as the procession snaked through Latina, a city in a rural area south of Rome that is home to tens of thousands of Indian migrant workers.

Indians have worked in the Agro Pontino -- the Pontine Marshes -- since the mid-1980s, harvesting pumpkins, leeks, beans and tomatoes, and working on flower farms or in buffalo mozzarella production.

Singh's death is being investigated, but it has sparked a wider debate in Italy over how to tackle systemic abuses in the agriculture sector, where use of undocumented workers and their abuse by farmers or gangmasters is rife.

The CGIL, Italy's largest trade union, estimates that as many as 230,000 agricultural workers do not have a contract 

© Tiziana FABI / AFP

"Satnam died in one day, I die every day. Because I too am a labour victim," said Parambar Singh, whose eye was seriously hurt in a work accident.

"My boss said he couldn't take me to hospital because I didn't have a contract," said the 33-year-old, who has struggled to work since.

"I have been waiting 10 months for justice," he said.

Paid a pittance

The workers get paid an average of 20 euros ($21) a day for up to 14 hours labour, according to the Osservatorio Placido Rizzotto, which analyses working conditions in the agriculture industry.

Far-right Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni has sought to reduce the number of undocumented migrants to Italy, while increasing pathways for legal migration for non-EU workers to tackle labour shortages.

But according to the Confagricoltura agribusiness association, only around 30 percent of workers given a visa actually travel to Italy, meaning there are never enough labourers to meet farmers' needs.

This month, Meloni said Italy's visa system was being exploited by organised crime groups to smuggle in illegal migrants.

She condemned the circumstances of Singh's death, saying they were "inhumane acts that do not belong to the Italian people".

"I hope that this barbarism will be harshly punished," she told her cabinet ministers last week.

Italy's financial police identified nearly 60,000 undocumented workers from January 2023 to June 2024.

But Italy's largest trade union CGIL estimates that as many as 230,000 people -- over a quarter of the country's seasonal agricultural workers -- do not have a contract.

While some are Italian, most are undocumented foreigners.

Female workers fare particularly badly, earning even less than their male counterparts and in some cases suffering sexual exploitation, it says.

The workers get paid an average of 20 euros a day for up to 14 hours labour

 © Tiziana FABI / AFP

"We all need regular job contracts, not to be trapped in this slavery," said Kaur Akveer, a 37-year-old who was part of a group of women in colourful saris marching behind the community leaders.

"Satnam was like my brother. He must be the last Indian to die," she said.

© 2024 AFP

In an 'increasingly socially liberal' UK, are Tories headed for the political wilderness?

AFP
Issued on: 25/06/2024 -

09:52

Britain will hold a national election on July 4 which opinion polls indicate will end 14 years of Conservative Party-led government. Opinion polls show the opposition Labour Party more than 20 points ahead of Prime Minister Rishi Sunak's Conservatives. Pollster YouGov has projected Labour could win 425 seats, with Conservatives on 108, which would mark the lowest number of seats won by the party in its near 200-year history. With the conservatives heading for a once-in-a-lifetime historic defeat, just days away from the polls, FRANCE 24 is joined by Tim Bale, Professor of Politics in the School of Politics and International Relations at Queen Mary, University of London.

EU kicks off membership talks with Ukraine, Moldova

By AFP
June 25, 2024


Ukraine lodged its bid to join the EU in the wake of Russia's 2022 invasion - Copyright AFP/File DIWAKAR BHANDARI
Olivier BAUBE

The European Union formally launches accession negotiations with Ukraine and Moldova on Tuesday, setting the fragile ex-Soviet states off on a long path towards membership that Russia has tried to block.

The landmark move is aimed in particular at sending a vote of confidence in Ukraine’s future as Moscow has momentum on the battlefield almost two-and-a-half years into the Kremlin’s invasion.

“These are truly historic moments. Ukraine is and will always be part of a united Europe,” Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelensky said when the EU’s 27 countries last week signed off on starting the talks.

“Millions of Ukrainians, and indeed generations of our people, are realising their European dream.”

Ukraine — followed by its neighbour Moldova — lodged their bids to join the EU in the immediate aftermath of Russia’s all-out assault in February 2022.

The start of the talks in Luxembourg still only marks the beginning of a protracted process of reforms strewn with political obstacles that will likely take many years — and may never lead to membership.

Standing in the way along that journey will be not just Russia’s efforts at destabilisation but reticence from doubters inside the EU, most notably Hungary.

So far, however, Ukraine — represented at the talks by Deputy Prime Minister Olga Stefanishyna — has won plaudits for kickstarting a raft of reforms on curbing graft and political interference, even as war rages.

“It’s a great credit to the Ukrainian government that they’ve made such progress so fast in the time of war towards accession,” Ireland’s foreign minister Michael Martin said on Monday.

“And I think it reflects a level of competence and genuine commitment on behalf of the Ukrainian government to joining the European Union.”

– Complex process –

Russia’s war in Ukraine has reinvigorated a push in the EU to take on new members, after years in which countries particularly in the Western Balkans made little progress on their hopes to join.

The EU in December 2023 also granted candidate status to another of Russia’s former Soviet neighbours, Georgia.

It likewise approved accession negotiations with Bosnia and has talks ongoing with Serbia, Montenegro, Albania and North Macedonia.

The meetings with Ukraine and Moldova on Tuesday will set off a process of screening of how far laws in the countries already comply with EU standards and how much more work lies ahead.

Once that is done the EU then has to begin laying out conditions for negotiations on 35 subjects — from taxation to environmental policy.

It appears unlikely that there will be progress onto the next step in the coming six months, when Hungary — the friendliest country to Russia in the bloc — holds the EU’s rotating presidency.

The start of the talks resonates powerfully in Ukraine as it was a desire for closer ties with the EU that sparked protests back in 2014 that eventually spiralled into the full-blown crisis with Russia.

The talks also come at a tense time in Moldova after the United States, Britain and Canada warned of a Russian “plot” to influence the country’s presidential elections in October.

Wedged between war-torn Ukraine and EU member Romania, Moldova’s pro-Western authorities frequently accuse the Kremlin of interfering in its internal affairs.

President Maia Sandu has accused Moscow — which has troops stationed in a breakaway region of the country — of aiming to destabilise Moldova ahead of the vote.

Antarctic faces melting 'tipping point' as oceans warm: study

Agence France-Presse
June 25, 2024 

Arctic penguin (Shutterstock)

Scientists have discovered a new tipping point toward "runaway melting" of Antarctic ice sheets, caused by warm ocean water intruding between the ice and the land it sits on, according to a study published on Tuesday.

While this type of melting has been previously studied, models used by the United Nation's Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) to project the impact of global warming on the Antarctic have yet to factor in this phenomenon.

They have also systematically underestimated ice loss seen thus far, said the study, published in the journal Nature Geoscience.

As ocean temperatures rise due to human-caused global warming, Antarctic ice sheets are melting, threatening a rise in global sea levels and putting coastal communities at risk.

"Increases in ocean temperature can lead to a tipping point being passed, beyond which ocean water intrudes in an unbounded manner beneath the ice sheet, via a process of runaway melting," the study said.

Antarctic ice sheets sit atop the bedrock and extend beyond the coast to float on the sea.

Previous studies have shown that warm seawater is seeping into the "grounding zone" -- where land and ice meet -- and further inland from under the floating ice.

As the water warms, even by a fraction, the intrusion accelerates from short distances of 100 metres (330 feet) to tens of kilometres (miles), melting ice along the way by heating it from below, explained the study's lead author Alexander Bradley.

"Every 10th of a degree (of warming) makes these kind of processes closer, these tipping points closer," said Bradley, a researcher with the British Antarctic Survey.

The risk to sea-level rise comes when the accelerated melting outpaces the formation of new ice on the continent.

Some areas of Antarctica are more vulnerable to this process than others due to the shape of the land mass, which has valleys and cavities where sea water can pool beneath the ice.

The Pine Island glacier, currently Antarctica's largest contributor to sea-level rise, is at high risk of melting due to the slope of the land that allows in more sea water, the study said.


Scientific models need to be updated to take into account the element of melt to better predict the risk of sea-level rise in the future and prepare for it, Bradley said.

"And it really just stresses the need for urgent climate action in order to prevent these tipping points from being passed," he added.

Judge says gay vets can sue DOD over ‘Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell’ discharges

Matt Keeley, The New Civil Rights Movement
June 25, 2024 

Gay Pride Flag (Shutterstock)

A U.S. magistrate judge ruled that LGBTQ veterans discharged under "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" can proceed in their suit against the Department of Defense.

The suit, filed by five veterans, alleges that they faced discrimination because they were given other-than-honorable discharges from the military. The vets are asking the DOD to remove all references to sexual orientation from their discharge paperwork and for the discharges to be converted to honorable.

The plaintiffs say that the process to correct discharge paperwork is "burdensome, opaque, expensive, and for many veterans virtually inaccessible." By having non-honorable discharges, LGBTQ vets are unable to reenlist. It's also difficult for them to prove military service, the plaintiffs say, and they are blocked from veteran services via the Department of Veterans Affairs.

READ MORE: ‘So. Tell Me. Are You Transgender?’ — After DADT: Transgender Life In The US Military

“Because of the circumstances and language of my discharge, which served as a painful reminder of the trauma I experienced, I was never able to proudly say that I served my country,” said Steven Egland, a U.S. Army veteran and one of the plaintiffs.

“Following my Other Than Honorable discharge from the U.S. Navy, which was accompanied by terrible harassment on my ship, I experienced homelessness and shame,” Lilly Steffanides, another plaintiff and U.S. Navy Veteran, said. “After many years, I reconnected with the veteran community and do my best to act as a leader and supporter for other LGBTQ+ veterans like me. I am joining this lawsuit because I want justice for my LGBTQ+ brothers and sisters, and I want my service to my country to be recognized as honorable.”

The DOD argued that the suit should be dismissed because the process for correcting records is neutral. Magistrate Judge Joseph C. Spero disagreed, saying that by not remedying this type of discharge, it "gives rise to a plausible inference of discriminatory intent," according to Bloomberg Law.

The DOD also argued that the plaintiffs' claims were untimely. Spero disagreed, ruling that the process of having to apply for their records to be corrected itself results in trauma, Bloomberg Law reported.

The suit says over 35,000 members of the U.S. military had been discharged for real or perceived homosexual behavior between 1980 and 2011, the year the homosexuality restriction was lifted. The original memorandum repealing "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" said it was unnecessary to update the discharge paperwork for those thrown out of the military by the policy, according to Bloomberg Law.


In February 2024, the DOD said that it was working to upgrade LGBTQ vets' discharges to honorable, according to DAV.org.

U.S. surgeon general declares gun violence a 'public health crisis'

Agence France-Presse
June 25, 2024 

A memorial at Robb Elementary School in Uvalde, Texas where 19 children and two adults were shot dead by a former student in 2022 (Jordan Vonderhaar/AFP)

The U.S. surgeon general on Tuesday issued a landmark advisory declaring gun violence a "public health crisis" and calling for wide-ranging firearm controls that have historically met stiff political opposition.

The advisory by Vivek Murthy, who was nominated by President Joe Biden, is the first such major report on gun violence from a surgeon general, whose office has limited authority but plays a significant role in public health issues.

A similar report on tobacco in the 1960s is viewed as a key first step to altering the perception of the substance's danger, ultimately leading to new regulations and a steep decline in consumption.

"Firearm violence is an urgent public health crisis that has led to loss of life, unimaginable pain, and profound grief for far too many Americans," Murthy said in a statement announcing the advisory.

"We don't have to continue down this path, and we don't have to subject our children to the ongoing horror of firearm violence in America. All Americans deserve to live their lives free from firearm violence, as well as from the fear and devastation that it brings."

The report cites government and other data that shows the United States is an extreme outlier on deaths and injuries from guns, especially for children.

Firearms in recent years have become the leading cause of deaths for Americans aged 1-19, above motor vehicles, the report said.

In 2022, 48,204 people died as a result of firearms, including suicides.

"It will take the collective commitment of our nation to turn the tide on firearm violence," Murthy said, calling for investments in research, community education programs, mental health support and tighter controls on buying guns.


The report also calls for mandating safe firearm storage, implementing universal background checks and banning assault weapons.

Biden and gun control activists have called for similar steps as the United States endures frequent mass shootings -- including in schools -- but reforms have been stymied for decades by opposition from the firearm lobby and Republican lawmakers.

Executive actions and state initiatives have been attacked in court as infringing on the constitutional right to own a firearm, enshrined in the Second Amendment.

Blueprint shows why only real barrier to global billionaire tax is 'political will'

Jake Johnson, 

Common Dreams
June 25, 2024 

British millionaire Phil White carries protest sign "Tax the rich" outside the World Economic Forum © Fabrice COFFRINI / AFP

Renowned economist Gabriel Zucman released a blueprint Tuesday showing the world's governments that a global minimum tax on billionaires would be both technically feasible and economically beneficial, leaving political will as the only major obstacle preventing transformative changes to an international tax structure long exploited by the ultra-rich.

Zucman, an economics professor at the University of California, Berkeley and a leading expert on tax evasion, estimated in the new analysis that a 2% minimum tax on the wealth of global billionaires would raise between $200 billion and $250 billion annually in revenue from roughly 3,000 individuals globally, resources that "could be invested to support sustained economic development through investments in education, health, public infrastructure, the energy transition, and climate change mitigation."

Billionaires in countries around the world—including France and the United States—pay lower effective income tax rates than those in the working class, often making use of holding companies and other complex maneuvers to dodge their obligations and stockpile massive fortunes. The world's billionaires collectively own $14.2 trillion in wealth, according toForbes data.

Zucman argued in his blueprint— commissioned by the government of Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva—that structuring a new tax based on a specific percentage of billionaires' wealth would prevent ultra-rich individuals who report little to no taxable income from completely avoiding taxation. He also notes that the wealth of billionaires is easier to calculate than income flows, given that "at the top of the wealth distribution, the bulk of wealth consists of shares in companies."

"Fundamentally, this minimum tax should be seen not as a wealth tax, but as a tool to strengthen the income tax," Zucman wrote. "A billionaire who already pays the equivalent of 2% of their wealth in income tax (e.g., because that person realizes a significant amount of capital gains or earns a significant amount of dividend income directly) would have no extra tax to pay. Only billionaires who currently pay less than 2% of their wealth in tax would have to pay more."


Numerous potential challenges could arise should nations attempt to move forward with a minimum tax on billionaires, Zucman noted, including difficulties obtaining accurate estimates of rich individuals' fortunes—which are often hidden away in tax havens—and insufficient coordination between countries, as well as likely efforts by billionaires to evade the tax by shifting assets abroad.

But Zucman argues such obstacles can be overcome in the process of designing the minimum tax, which he described as the "most powerful tool to improve the effectiveness of the taxation of ultra-high-net-worth individuals because it ensures that no matter the avoidance strategies these taxpayers may use, the amount of tax effectively paid cannot fall below a certain amount."

"How to ensure an effective taxation of ultra-high-net-worth individuals if some jurisdictions decline to implement this standard? Two main policies could be implemented: first, measures to strengthen mechanisms to limit tax-driven international mobility; second, mechanisms to incentivize broad participation in the agreement," Zucman wrote. "Many countries have rules in place to limit tax-driven changes in residency of high-net-worth individuals, including exit taxes. Countries implementing the minimum tax standard could build on these rules and strengthen them."

The primary barrier to establishing a global tax on billionaires is not technical, Zucman argued, but political, particularly given the sway the ultra-rich have over economic policy.

"The goal of this blueprint is to offer a basis for political discussions—to start a conversation, not to end it," Zucman wrote. "It is for citizens to decide, through democratic deliberation and the vote, how taxation should be carried out. I hope this report will contribute to this democratic discussion."

"Thanks to recent progress in international tax cooperation, a common taxation standard for billionaires has become technically possible," he added. "Implementing it is a question of political will."

Recent statements by world leaders and survey data indicate that a global tax on billionaires is increasingly popular—even among millionaires. A YouGov poll released earlier this week found that 59% of U.S. millionaires would support a global tax on billionaires equal to 2% of their wealth, a proposal that U.S. Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen has thus far opposed.

In April, the finance ministers of Brazil, Germany, South Africa, and Spain argued in a Guardianop-ed that a minimum tax on billionaires would "boost social justice and increase trust in the effectiveness of fiscal redistribution" while also generating "much-needed revenues for governments to invest in public goods such as health, education, the environment, and infrastructure—from which everybody benefits, including those at the top of the income pyramid."

"Fighting inequality requires political commitment—a commitment to the objectives of inclusive, fair, and effective international tax cooperation," the ministers wrote. "Surely, it needs to go hand-in-hand with much broader approaches that reduce not only wealth inequality but also social and carbon inequalities. The challenges that lie ahead are huge, but we stand ready to engage in concerted multilateral action to tackle them."

A REUTERS SPECIAL REPORT
Apple supplier Foxconn rejects married women from India iPhone jobs

Two unidentified women wearing backpacks stand outside a security office in January last year at the main entrance to Foxconn's factory in Sriperumbudur, near Chennai, where workers assemble iPhones for Apple. 

REUTERS/Praveen Paramasivam

Foxconn, a major manufacturer of Apple devices, has been excluding female candidates from assembly jobs at its flagship Indian smartphone plant because they are married. Both companies’ codes of conduct state that workers shouldn't be discriminated against on the basis of marital status.

By PRAVEEN PARAMASIVAM, MUNSIF VENGATTIL and ADITYA KALRA
Filed June 25, 202
SRIPERUMBUDUR, India

The two women standing near the entrance to the iPhone factory in southern India were upset.

Parvathi and Janaki, sisters in their 20s, had come to the plant, run by major Apple supplier Foxconn, for interviews in March 2023 after seeing job ads on WhatsApp. But they had been turned away at the main gate by a security officer who stopped them and asked: “Are you married?”

“We didn’t get the jobs as we both are married,” Parvathi later said in an interview at her village shanty. “Even the auto-rickshaw driver who took us from the bus stand to the Foxconn facility told us they wouldn't take married women,” she added. “We thought we would still give it a shot.”

A Reuters investigation has found that Foxconn has systematically excluded married women from jobs at its main India iPhone assembly plant, on the grounds they have more family responsibilities than their unmarried counterparts. S. Paul, a former human-resources executive at Foxconn India, said the company’s executives verbally convey the recruitment rules to its Indian hiring agencies, which Foxconn tasks with scouting for candidates, bringing them in for interviews and employing them.

Foxconn typically doesn’t hire married women because of “cultural issues” and societal pressures, said Paul, who said he left the company in August 2023 for a better-paying role at a consulting firm. The company’s view was that there were “many issues post-marriage,” Paul added. Among them: Women “have babies after marriage.”

“Risk factors increase when you hire married women,” he said.

Paul’s account was corroborated by 17 employees from more than a dozen Foxconn hiring agencies in India, and four current and former Foxconn human-resources executives. Twelve of these sources spoke on condition of anonymity.

The agents and the Foxconn HR sources cited family duties, pregnancy and higher absenteeism as reasons why Foxconn did not hire married women at the plant, located at Sriperumbudur, near the city of Chennai. Many of these people also said jewelry worn by married Hindu women could interfere with production.

The ban isn’t absolute. Three former Foxconn HR executives told Reuters that the Taiwan-headquartered manufacturer relaxes the practice of not hiring married women during high-production periods when it sometimes faces labor shortages. In some cases, hiring agencies help female candidates conceal their marital status to secure jobs, Reuters found.

In response to questions from Reuters, Apple and Foxconn acknowledged lapses in hiring practices in 2022 and said they had worked to address the issues. All the discriminatory practices documented by Reuters at the Sriperumbudur plant, however, took place in 2023 and 2024. The companies didn't address those instances. They also didn’t specify whether any of the lapses in 2022 related to the hiring of married women.

Job aspirants talk with a hiring agent outside the Foxconn iPhone plant in Sriperumbudur, in Tamil Nadu state, in April. Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi has advocated for the removal of barriers that restrict women’s access to economic opportunities. 

REUTERS/Palani Kumar


“Risk factors increase when you hire married women.”S. Paul, former Foxconn HR executive, describing the company’s stance

While Indian law doesn’t bar companies from discriminating in hiring based on marital status, Apple’s and Foxconn’s policies prohibit such practice in their supply chains.

Apple told Reuters it upholds the “highest supply chain standards in the industry,” and noted that Foxconn employs some married women in India.

“When concerns about hiring practices were first raised in 2022 we immediately took action and worked with our supplier to conduct monthly audits to identify issues and ensure that our high standards are upheld,” Apple said in a statement. “All of our suppliers in India hire married women, including Foxconn.”

In a statement, Foxconn said it “vigorously refutes allegations of employment discrimination based on marital status, gender, religion or any other form.”

The exposure of the factory’s hiring practices turns a new spotlight on one of the highest-profile foreign investments in India.

Apple, one of the world’s most valuable companies, is positioning India as an alternative manufacturing base to China amid geopolitical tensions between Beijing and Washington. The government of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, for its part, sees Foxconn’s iPhone factory and Apple’s broader supply chain in India as helping the world’s most populous country move up the economic value chain.

Apple, Foxconn and other big companies also play a key role in another imperative of Modi’s: the removal of societal impediments that prevent many Indian women from getting jobs.

While Foxconn employs thousands of women in India, discrimination on the basis of marital status risks undercutting Modi’s aims.

Modi’s administration has tried to overhaul labor laws to make hiring and firing easier and prevent gender-based discrimination in recruitment. Still, those measures are yet to be implemented and would not specifically address discrimination on the basis of marital status.

The hiring curbs at the iPhone plant also show the challenge for both Apple and Foxconn in upholding their stated global standards of inclusion while expanding their supply chains in this fast-growing but largely conservative country.

Between January 2023 and May 2024, Reuters made more than 20 trips to Sriperumbudur and spoke to dozens of jobseekers about the hiring process. Reporters also reviewed a candidate information pamphlet, dozens of job ads and records of WhatsApp discussions in which four of Foxconn’s third-party recruiters stated to prospective candidates that only unmarried women were eligible for assembly jobs. The ads make no mention of the hiring of men.

For some Indian women, a job building iPhones is a ticket out of extreme poverty. The Foxconn positions offer food and accommodation and a monthly paycheck of about $200, roughly in line with India’s per capita GDP. Such jobs are the kind of opportunities offered by multinational companies that the government has encouraged to help lift living standards.

Women board a Foxconn factory bus near the village of Molachur in April. REUTERS/Palani Kumar

Foxconn buses carry workers near the entrance to the Sriperumbudur factory. Assembly jobs at the iPhone plant pay around $200 a month. 

REUTERS/Palani Kumar


Foxconn, the world’s largest contract electronics manufacturer, outsources its hiring of assembly-line workers to third-party vendors, who must be registered with the Tamil Nadu state government as official Foxconn service providers. The hiring agents scout for and screen the candidates, who ultimately are interviewed and selected by Foxconn. These same vendors directly employ the workers and manage the payroll, getting paid about $10 to $15 a month per employee, three hiring agents said.

Apple and Foxconn each require their suppliers to adhere to their respective codes of conduct.

Foxconn’s code states it is committed to a workforce free of “unlawful discrimination,” and that the company and its suppliers should not discriminate over marital status, gender and other factors in hiring. Apple’s code for suppliers states that they and their subsidiaries, as well as any subcontractors, should not discriminate against any worker based on age, gender, marital status and other matters.

In its statement, Foxconn said, “We enhanced our management process for hiring agencies in India in 2022 and identified four agencies that were posting ads that did not meet our standards,” without naming the agencies. “We took corrective action with those agencies and more than 20 job ads were removed.”

Further, Foxconn said that in its latest round of hiring, almost 25% of the women it hired were married, without specifying the number or where they were employed.

Modi’s office, and India’s federal ministries of labor, commerce and information technology, did not respond to requests for comment about Foxconn not hiring married women on its assembly lines. Tamil Nadu officials, including the chief minister’s office and the state ministries of industry and labor, also did not respond to questions.

Reuters could not establish when the practice of not hiring married women for assembly line work began. Thanga Rasu, a recruiter at Go Staffing, a hiring vendor for Foxconn, said in November 2023 that he had attended meetings with Foxconn officials for around a year and the “unmarried rule” had been in place during that period.

Assembly lines entirely or predominantly staffed by women have emerged in some industries in India. That’s in line with Modi’s efforts to boost female labor-force participation – which official data shows is around 37%, compared with almost 80% for men.

Scooter maker Ola Electric is an example of another company with a focus on hiring women. Bhavish Aggarwal, the founder, said on X in May that Ola runs one of the largest "women only automotive plants," where almost 5,000 work, with a plan to "grow to tens of thousands in the coming years.” Ola declined to comment about its hiring practices.

‘Betterment of society’

Despite the country’s economic boom, many women in India remain confined to household chores and childcare. Since taking office in 2014, Modi has put women at the center of his government’s plans to increase incomes.

“When women prosper, the world prospers,” Modi said in an address to a ministerial conference on women’s empowerment last August. “We must work to remove the barriers that restrict their access to markets, global value chains and affordable finance.”

Apple CEO Tim Cook gestures during the inauguration of India's first Apple retail store in Mumbai in April last year. The South Asian country is increasingly important to Apple, which is moving some production beyond China.

 REUTERS/Francis Mascarenhas

Apple and Foxconn, also known as Hon Hai Precision Industry, are central to those goals. When Apple CEO Tim Cook visited India last year, Information Technology Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw said he discussed “job creation especially for women” with the executive. Vaishnaw’s then-deputy, Rajeev Chandrasekhar, has also lauded Apple’s ecosystem for generating more than 150,000 jobs in the past three years.

Apple, in turn, has bet on India as its next growth frontier and a pillar of its efforts to shift production beyond China. India will account for about 9% to 14% of iPhone production globally this year, compared with 86% to 91% in China, according to Taiwan-based Isaiah Research. Ming-Chi Kuo, an analyst at TF International Securities, has predicted India’s share could reach and even exceed 20% this year. Apple did not address a Reuters query about these estimates.

India is also important to Foxconn, which last year exported devices worth $5 billion from the country, according to commercially available customs data. Led by chairman Young Liu, Foxconn in recent years has expanded in India, where it makes iPhones and products for other smartphone brands, including China’s Xiaomi, and plans to move into AirPods and chipmaking.

In January, Modi’s government awarded Liu India’s third-highest civilian honor. “Let’s do our part for manufacturing in India and for the betterment of society,” Liu said on receiving the award.

India’s Prime Minister Narendra Modi greets Foxconn Chairman Young Liu during SemiconIndia, an annual semiconductor conference, in the city of Gandhinagar in July last year. During intense production periods, Foxconn relaxes its practice of not hiring married women on its assembly lines to mitigate labor shortages, three former Foxconn HR executives said. 

REUTERS/Amit Dave

Most iPhones made in India are produced at the Sriperumbudur plant, about 25 miles west of Chennai. The factory began producing the Apple devices in 2019. It now employs thousands of women on its assembly lines.

In a forum hosted by the Center for Emerging Markets at Northeastern University in 2022, Josh Foulger, then a top Foxconn executive in India, said the company was “completely aligned with” the Indian government’s plans to boost manufacturing. He described how Foxconn opted to hire a workforce in India that overwhelmingly comprised women.

“For me it was a no-brainer,” Foulger said, crediting his mother, a former school teacher, with giving him the idea. “We tried it and it was a fantastic success.”

Foulger said women migrated from around India to work for Foxconn, attracted by its provision of safe accommodation. He added that Foxconn also hires men – “amazing guys who program all the robots” – as technicians and engineers.

Foulger, who left Foxconn earlier this year, declined to comment about the manufacturer’s hiring methods.

Josh Foulger, then a senior executive at Foxconn India, has said it was a “no-brainer” for the company to hire an overwhelmingly female workforce in the country. He said he got the idea from his mother, a former school teacher. 

REUTERS/Anindito Mukherjee

Many of the people who spoke to Reuters also attributed Foxconn’s hiring practices to what they said were the company’s concerns that married Hindu women wear metal toe rings known in southern India as metti and necklaces called thaali to signify the bond of marriage.

These customary ornaments could interfere with the manufacturing process, and married women won’t typically remove them, according to five of the hiring vendors and three current and former HR executives. Electrostatic discharge could occur when metals come into contact with phone components, potentially damaging them, one current and one former Foxconn HR executive said.

Additionally, three current and former engineers for Foxconn and an affiliate company, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to comment publicly, said women were screened for metals on entering and leaving the assembly lines, and that the prohibition on ornaments helped security officers prevent any theft of components.

Reuters could not independently ascertain whether ornaments affected the manufacturing process.

In its statement, Foxconn said “married women are welcome to wear traditional metal ornaments while working in our facilities,” without elaborating.

Suhasini Rao, a Bengaluru-based lawyer specializing in Indian labor regulations, said it would be reasonable for a business to require a person to remove ornaments for safety or quality-control reasons as a condition of employment, provided that was conveyed clearly.

Discrimination solely on the basis of marital status, while not prohibited in the private sector under Indian law, “may interfere with an individual’s fundamental right to freedom of trade and occupation and might be struck down by the courts, if challenged,” Rao said.

There is legal precedent on the subject of firing married women on the grounds of absenteeism.

Married Hindu women typically wear jewelry like this necklace, known in southern India as thaali. Hiring vendors for Foxconn said that the metal ornaments could interfere with the iPhone manufacturing process and so were a reason not to employ married women on the company’s assembly lines. REUTERS/Priyanshu Singh
Married Hindu women also wear jewelry like this toe ring, known as metti. REUTERS/Priyanshu Singh

In 1965, India’s Supreme Court struck down a pharmaceutical company’s practice of terminating the employment of women in its packing and labeling department when they got married.

The company, Messrs International Franchises, had argued that it required consistent attendance that “cannot be expected from married women,” and that there was “greater absenteeism among married women.”

The four judges determined there was “nothing to show that married women would necessarily be more likely to be absent than unmarried women,” and “there is no good and convincing reason why such a rule should continue.” Reuters was unable to determine if the company is still operating.


RELATED CONTENT

Women force change at Indian iPhone plant, sick from bad food, crowded dorms


Apple puts supplier Foxconn's India plant on notice after protests

With handouts, piped water and cooking gas, India's Modi woos women voters

Foxconn has faced scrutiny over the years for its culture and work environment, most notably in China, where it runs the world's biggest iPhone factory in Zhengzhou with 200,000 workers.

A spate of suicides by Foxconn employees in China more than a decade ago prompted questions from their families and labor rights groups about work conditions. Foxconn largely attributed the deaths to workers’ personal problems, and set up counseling hotlines.

In India, protests broke out at the Sriperumbudur plant in December 2021, leading to a brief production halt, after more than 250 workers suffered food poisoning.

That episode led Apple to dispatch independent auditors to assess conditions in workers’ facilities. Both Apple and Foxconn said they found some dormitories and dining rooms did not meet required standards, and Apple briefly put the plant on probation. Two days before the plant partially resumed operations in January 2022, Apple said that it would continue to monitor conditions at workers’ dorms and dining facilities.

Married ‘not allowed’

In addition to the sisters, Parvathi and Janaki, Reuters spoke to five other women who said they were rejected by Foxconn’s hiring vendors on the grounds that they were married.

Priya Darshini received the news in a WhatsApp group chat, which a recruiter from SS Enterprises, one of the hiring agencies, had created to scout for candidates.

Darshini posed questions to the group in August 2023, according to a transcript reviewed by Reuters: “I have a baby. Are there child care facilities? Could I bring my baby? Age is 2. Salary?”

The recruiter, T. Balu, sent a curt reply: Married “not allowed.”

Asked about his response, Balu told Reuters that Foxconn does not hire married women, who wear ornaments, because it wants to ensure a metal-free zone.

Darshini, who is in her late 20s, told Reuters she is seeking help from friends and family to find a job that would allow her to care for her child.

Paul, the former HR executive, said Foxconn management advises its hiring vendors not to mention marital and age criteria in their job ads.

But in some instances, vendors did not heed that advice.

“Job vacancy for Only Female … iPhone Manufacturing … Age: 19 to 30 Unmarried,” said an ad posted by a recruiter at Proodle, a hiring agency for Foxconn, in a publicly accessible WhatsApp group in February 2024.

A YouTube ad for Foxconn jobs posted by recruiter Cumans Manpower in July last year sought “unmarried only” female candidates aged 18 to 28.

A job ad posted on YouTube (left) by recruiter Cumans in July 2023 and an information pamphlet distributed by a Groveman recruiter outside the Foxconn factory in March last year sought applications from unmarried women only. Both hiring agencies are among the third-party vendors used by Foxconn. 

Credit: Screenshot of Cumans ad via YouTube

A recruiter with SS Enterprises also posted a Facebook ad in September 2023 that specified the same requirements and contained a link to a Foxconn job application. The ad became inaccessible in late May after Reuters sent questions to SS Enterprises for this story.

When Reuters visited Sriperumbudur in March 2023, a recruiter was standing outside the Foxconn plant and wearing a badge of the hiring agency Groveman Global. She handed a job pamphlet to a Reuters reporter. It advertised mobile-phone manufacturing roles, which the recruiter, who identified herself only as Kaviya, said were Foxconn assembly positions.

The pamphlet stated the jobs were for “unmarried women” aged 18 to 32, with a monthly salary of about $163 for those who live in company hostels and $220 for those who don’t. Foxconn doesn’t hire married women, Kaviya told Reuters, without elaborating.

None of the hiring agencies identified by Reuters responded to questions about the job ads and employment practices at the Foxconn plant.

Proodle, Cumans, Groveman and SS Enterprises are among the agencies registered by Foxconn as contractors with the Tamil Nadu government for providing assembly line helpers, according to copies of contractor licenses Reuters obtained from the state government under India’s Right to Information Act.

Suppliers that violate Apple’s code of conduct can face probation, suspension and even lose their entire business with Apple. The company said in its 2024 supply chain report that since 2009, it has removed 25 manufacturing supplier facilities and 231 material processors for failure to meet its standards.

In China, at least six online job ads reviewed by Reuters show workers engaged in iPhone assembly at Foxconn’s Zhengzhou plant can earn $400 to $800 a month, more than double the wages in India. The Chinese ads do not mention marital status or gender, saying anyone aged 18 to 48 can apply.

Concealing status

In Sriperumbudur, a road junction a little over a mile from the Foxconn plant is a hotspot for recruiters to meet candidates. Many jobseekers travel with their families from far-flung villages; if hired they are expected to start immediately.

If a married woman somehow makes it inside for an interview during the typical hiring season, Foxconn officials remain on the lookout for telltale metal ornaments, according to one current and one former Foxconn HR executive. Those wearing the ornaments are then turned away with the explanation that there had been a miscommunication or that recruitment had been paused, the people said.

But there are ways to bypass the system.

After she and her sister were turned away at the factory gate, Parvathi told Reuters that their recruiter, whose name she did not know, told them they should have removed their ornaments to conceal their marital status and gain entry.

Five recruitment agency officials also said candidates can conceal their marital status to secure jobs if their Indian government-issued ID card, known as Aadhaar, still reflects them as unmarried.


REUTERS INVESTIGATES

More Reuters investigations and long-form narratives


Got a confidential news tip? Reuters Investigates offers several ways to securely contact our reporters

M. Malathi, a Cumans recruiter, said candidates who had not updated their marital status on Aadhaar and were willing to remove ornaments “could be helped by manpower agencies, and Cumans does help.”

Reuters spoke to a married woman from a town near Chennai, who said she used that strategy to work at Foxconn for a year, undetected, before quitting for personal reasons in 2023.

“It helped that I didn’t wear metal ornaments to work,” said the woman. Reuters is withholding her name so as not to harm her future prospects.

“You don't need many educational qualifications. I liked it there. I want to go back when the opportunity comes.”

Auto-rickshaws pass by billboards promoting Apple’s iPhone X devices in Mumbai. Most iPhones made in India are produced at Foxconn’s Sriperumbudur plant.

 REUTERS/Francis Mascarenhas


Additional reporting by Jatindra Dash in Bhubaneswar, India, Sethuraman N R in Bengaluru, and Shanghai Newsroom


Wives Out

By Praveen Paramasivam, Munsif Vengattil and Aditya Kalra

Photo editing: Edgar Su

Art direction: Catherine Tai

Edited by David Crawshaw

Will ex-gang leader held in Tupac Shakur killing get house arrest with $750K bail? Judge to decide


 Rapper Tupac Shakur attends a voter registration event in South Central Los Angeles, Aug. 15, 1996. A Nevada judge is being asked to decide Tuesday, June 25, 2024, if a former Los Angeles-area gang leader will be freed from jail to house arrest ahead of his murder trial in the 1996 killing of hip-hop music legend Tupac Shakur.

 (AP Photo/Frank Wiese, File)

 Duane “Keffe D” Davis, who is accused of orchestrating the 1996 slaying of hip-hop icon Tupac Shakur, is led into the courtroom during a status hearing at the Regional Justice Center, April 23, 2024, in Las Vegas. A Nevada judge is being asked to decide Tuesday, June 25, if former Los Angeles-area gang leader Davis will be freed from jail to house arrest ahead of his murder trial in the 1996 killing of hip-hop music legend Tupac Shakur.

 (Bizuayehu Tesfaye/Las Vegas Review-Journal via AP, File)

BY KEN RITTER
 June 24, 2024

LAS VEGAS (AP) — A Nevada judge is being asked to decide Tuesday if a former Los Angeles-area gang leader will be freed from jail to house arrest ahead of his murder trial in the 1996 killing of hip-hop music legend Tupac Shakur in Las Vegas.

Duane “Keffe D” Davis, now 61, has sought to be released since shortly after his arrest last September made him the only person ever charged with a crime in a killing that for 27 years has drawn intense interest and speculation.

Prosecutors allege the gunfire that killed Shakur stemmed from competition between East Coast members of a Bloods gang sect and West Coast groups of a Crips sect, including Davis, for dominance in a musical genre known at the time as “gangsta rap.”

Davis’ defense attorney, Carl Arnold, declined by telephone Monday to speak ahead of a hearing before Clark County District Court Judge Carli Kierny in Las Vegas.

The judge has said Davis — a self-described former leader of a Crips gang sect in the Los Angeles suburb of Compton, California — can be freed on $750,000 bond if he can demonstrate that funds used to secure his release were obtained legally.

Representatives at Crum & Forster Insurance and North River Insurance Co., the Morristown, New Jersey-based backer of the bond identified in the court filing, have not responded to telephone messages from The Associated Press.

Davis told Kierny in court in February that backers were “hesitant to come in here and help me out on the bail because of the media and the circus that’s going on.”

Kierny’s decision in January to set a bail amount came after prosecutors and Davis’ defense lawyers traded allegations about whether the word “green light” recorded by authorities monitoring an October jailhouse telephone conversation between Davis and his son was evidence of threats to witnesses in the case, or showed danger faced by Davis’ family members.

Davis has pleaded not guilty to first-degree murder. His trial is scheduled Nov. 4. If convicted, he could spend the rest of his life in prison. Public defenders who represented Davis before he hired Arnold said in December he wasn’t getting proper medical care in jail following a bout with colon cancer that they said was in remission.

According to police, prosecutors and Davis’ own accounts, he is the only person still alive among four people who were in a white Cadillac from which shots were fired in September 1996, mortally wounding Shakur and grazing rap mogul Marion “Suge” Knight at an intersection just off the Las Vegas Strip. Knight, now 59, is serving 28 years in a California prison for using a vehicle to kill a Los Angeles-area man in 2015.

Davis’ nephew, Orlando “Baby Lane” Anderson, who was in the back seat of the Cadillac, denied involvement in Shakur’s death and died in a May 1998 shooting in Compton. The other back seat passenger, DeAndre “Big Dre” or “Freaky” Smith, died in 2004. The driver, Terrence “Bubble Up” Brown, died in a 2015 shooting in Compton.

Davis has publicly described himself as the orchestrator of the shooting, but not the gunman. A renewed push by Las Vegas police to solve the case led to a search warrant and raid last July at his home in Henderson.

Prosecutors say they have strong evidence to convict Davis of murder based his own accounts during multiple police and media interviews since 2008 — and in a 2019 memoir of his life leading a Compton street gang.

In his book, Davis wrote he was promised immunity to tell authorities in Los Angeles what he knew about the fatal shootings of Shakur and rival rapper Christopher Wallace six months later in Los Angeles. Wallace was known as The Notorious B.I.G. or Biggie Smalls.

Arnold maintains that Davis told stories so he could make money, and that police and prosecutors in Nevada lack key evidence including the gun, the Cadillac and proof that Davis was in Las Vegas at the time of the shooting.