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Apple says it is working to resolve employee complaints at the world's biggest iPhone factory in China, after police were filmed beating protesting employees at the plant this week and employees began an exodus Thursday. A team from the US company is at Foxconn Technology Group’s plant in Zhengzhou, capital of central Henan province, and is in talks with its largest contract manufacturer to address the worker complaints that led to the violent protests. “We have Apple team members on the ground at our supplier Foxconn’s Zhengzhou facility,” the Cupertino, California-based technology giant said. “We are reviewing the situation and working closely with Foxconn to ensure their employees’ concerns are addressed.” Labor groups have criticized Apple for failing to adequately protect the rights of workers at the vast Zhengzhou site. Workers have clashed with police following delayed bonus payments and conditions at the facility, which has been contending with an outbreak of Covid-19 for more than a month. Foxconn has blamed “an input error in the computer system” that occurred during the onboarding process that resulted in new hires receiving contracts intended for existing workers. The company said it guaranteed new hires will be paid what was agreed and in line with official recruitment posters. Foxconn has also offered a 10,000 yuan payment, equivalent to $1,400, to newly-recruited workers who wanted to leave their jobs and return home, according to text messages seen by the Wall Street Journal.

 

South China Morning Post

Wall Street Journal

Thousands of Amazon warehouse workers in about 40 countries are planning to take part in protests and walkouts to coincide with Black Friday sales. Workers in the U.S., U.K., India, Japan, Australia, South Africa and across Europe want better wages and working conditions as the cost-of-living crisis deepens. A campaign called “Make Amazon Pay” is being coordinated by an international coalition of trade unions alongside other civil society groups. “It’s time for the tech giant to cease their awful, unsafe practices immediately, respect the law and negotiate with the workers who want to make their jobs better,” said Christy Hoffman, general secretary for UNI Global Union, one of the campaign’s organizers. “While we are not perfect in any area, if you objectively look at what Amazon is doing on these important matters you’ll see that we do take our role and our impact very seriously,” Amazon spokesman David Nieberg said.

 

Bloomberg

Twitter is to hold talks with fired employees in the Ghanaian capital, Accra, the location of the social media platform’s only African office, after they were offered poorer-than-announced severance packages. Around 20 people worked in the West African country’s office. Carla Olympio, a lawyer representing the employees, said: “This is not an ordinary situation and so Twitter must obey redundancy provisions under Ghanaian law . . . You can’t compel anyone to treat people with respect but you have to obey the law.” Companies in Ghana have to notify authorities at least three months before implementing a redundancy, show they are working to mitigate any negative impact, and plan for negotiation of redundancy pay. Twitter announced it was opening its first Africa office in Ghana in a bid to "be more immersed in the rich and vibrant communities that drive the conversations taking place every day across the African continent," it said in an April 2021 statement.

 

Bloomberg

Adidas has launched an investigation into reports that rapper Kanye West created a "toxic environment" when he was working with the brand. Some workers on the Yeezy collaboration claim that he showed them explicit pictures and videos as part of bullying tactics. In a letter, they said bosses were aware of West's "problematic behavior" but "turned their moral compass off". Adidas said it did not yet know whether the allegations have any merit. "It is currently not clear whether the accusations made in an anonymous letter are true," the company said in a statement. "However, we take these allegations very seriously and have taken the decision to launch an independent investigation of the matter immediately to address the allegations." West, who was dropped by the company last month after he posted anti-Semitic comments online, has not responded to story.

 

Bloomberg

Forbes

Wall Street Journal

Balenciaga has apologised for featuring children cuddling teddy bears dressed in bondage gear in its latest advertising campaign. Shot by photographer Gabriele Galimberti, images linked to the Balenciaga Gift Shop campaign featured young children dressed in the Balenciaga Kids line. According to the original press release issued last week, the "campaign iterates on the artist's series Toy Stories, an exploration of what people collect and receive as gifts." Photographer Galimberti said that the direction and shooting of the campaign were out of his hands.

 

NBC News

The Times

Class action lawsuits have been filed in New York against JP Morgan and Deutsche Bank alleging the banks enabled the sexual abuse of late paedophile financier Jeffrey Epstein. The cases were filed by David Boies on behalf of Epstein’s alleged victims and claim the banks “knowingly benefited and received things of value for assisting, supporting, facilitating, and otherwise providing the most critical service for the Jeffrey Epstein sex trafficking organization.” Mr Boies acted for Virginia Giuffre in her case against Prince Andrew. The lawsuits single out Jes Staley, who handled JP Morgan's relationship with Epstein and later became chief executive of Barclays, claiming that he protected Epstein and his illegal sexual abuse organization from scrutiny. A probe by U.K. regulators uncovered 1,200 emails between the two men while Staley was at JPMorgan, with content that included unexplained terms.

 

Financial Times

The Wall Street Journal

The Frankfurt offices of Bank of New York Mellon have been raided by Cologne prosecutors as part of their vast cum-ex probe. A spokesperson for Cologne prosecutors said searches included the homes of employees who are suspects in the case. More than 120 officers are involved, including tax investigators from three German states. The investigators are also looking for evidence of deals similar to cum-ex, the spokesperson said. Named for the Latin term for “with-without,” the cum-ex trading strategy took advantage of German tax laws that seemed to allow multiple investors to claim refunds of a tax that was paid only once.

 

Bloomberg

Meta, the parent company of Facebook, is being sued in the U.K. over its privacy policy after a user found she could not opt out of the profiling used to sell adverts. Tanya O’Carroll found Facebook had tagged her with more than 700 characteristics based on her activity, some of which are classed as protected. O’Carroll believes users should be able to opt out of having personal data used for direct marketing. Ravi Naik, a lawyer with the digital rights agency AWO, is representing O’Carroll. He said: “Meta is straining to concoct legal arguments to deny our client even has this right. But Tanya’s claim is straightforward; it will hopefully breathe life back into the rights we are all guaranteed under the GDPR.”

 

The Times

The most popular virtual reality (VR) devices on the market all have serious privacy problems, according to a new analysis by Common Sense Media, leaving school districts that want to invest in VR with no viable options. The tech advocacy group examined seven of the most popular VR devices, made by some of the biggest players in the world, including Meta, Microsoft and Sony, which make up close to 100% of the marketplace. “We can’t recommend any device right now for schools and districts that wouldn’t potentially be violating state or federal privacy laws,” asserts Girard Kelly, Common Sense’s director of privacy, who conducted the analysis. “School districts probably should hold off a little bit if they are interested in VR purchasing for an Esports program or computer lab.”

 

Education Week

As the pandemic recedes and concerns about inflation and the recession persist, the worldwide videogame industry is experiencing its first yearly sales decrease in at least ten years. In their most recent earnings statements, major publishers provided grim predictions for the current quarter, which is generally their most lucrative due to the holidays, as consumers spend less time at home and struggle with rising prices for basic necessities. The videogame business recently experienced one of its most successful periods ever. People were stranded at home because of Covid-19, and many of them spent that time playing more video games. The industry is being squeezed this year by a number of issues, including the strong dollar and a lack of new blockbuster titles, in addition to macroeconomic factors and the slowing of demand associated to the pandemic. Among the publishers without high-profile releases this holiday season are Electronic Arts, Take-Two Interactive Software, Ubisoft Entertainment and Microsoft. According to estimates from Newzoo BV, for all of 2022, global consumer spending on videogame software is expected to fall 4.3%. That would be the first year-over-year decline since the analytics firm began tracking the industry in 2012. Such spending increased 7.6% in 2021 and 25% in 2020, Newzoo said.

 

Wall Street Journal

HP expects to cut up to 6,000 jobs by the end of fiscal 2025, or about 12% of its global workforce. The company employs nearly 50,000 people. Reuters notes that the cuts come at a time when sales of personal computers and laptops are sliding as shoppers tighten budgets amid a cost-of-living crisis. "Many of the recent challenges we have seen in FY'22 will likely continue into FY'23," said HP chief financial officer Marie Myers. HP estimates it will incur about $1.0bn in labor and non-labor costs related to restructuring and other charges, with nearly $600m in fiscal 2023 and the rest split between the following two years.

 

Reuters

Despite the Federal Reserve aggressively raising borrowing costs this year, U.S. consumers continued to seek out more credit cards, which decreased demand for mortgages, auto loans, and other forms of credit, according to research from the New York Fed. According to the most current credit access survey from the New York Fed, application rates for credit cards "remained robust" this year, reaching 27.1% in October, up from 26.5% a year earlier and above the pre-pandemic level of 26.3% in February 2020. In contrast, after a comeback in 2021, credit application rates overall slightly decreased this year. The study showed that demand is strongest from consumers with high credit scores. Application rates for people with credit scores over 760 were above pre-pandemic levels, while rates for consumers with credit scores below 680 were below pre-pandemic levels.

 

Bloomberg

China could host the third Belt and Road Forum for International Cooperation next year, Chinese President Xi Jinping said at the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) gathering in Bangkok. It would be the first staging of the event since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic. Previous editions of the forum, in 2017 and 2019, were attended by leaders and officials from dozens of countries.

 

Xinhau

Global Times

Reuters