Three Gorges Dam on alert as heavy rain and floods kill 6 in China
The Three Gorges Dam, China’s largest, is on high alert as floods triggered by torrential rains wreak havoc in the southwestern part of the country.
Record rainfall in Chongqing has caused flooding in a dozen districts and counties since Thursday, raising the water levels in 29 rivers, state news agency Xinhua reported.
Six people have died in the region which has received over 250mm of rain, according to the Chongqing Hydrological Monitoring Station.
An aerial drone showed a township submerged in muddy waters.
Dianjiang county in Chongqing received 269.2mm of rain on Thursday, the highest in a single day ever.
The rains have affected over 40,000 people, forced the evacuation of several areas and damaged 1,800 hectares of crops, CCTV reported.
The rains and subsequent flooding have also disrupted operations at the Chongqing railway station, leading to the suspension of 26 train journeys on Thursday.
The Flood Control and Drought Relief Headquarters on Thursday raised the flood emergency response to level 3 in the four-tier response system in which level 1 is the most severe.
“As flood preparedness and response enter a critical period, we should strengthen warnings and monitoring and timely evacuate people in areas at risk of geological disasters,” Chongqing’s mayor, Hu Henghua, said on Thursday. “It’s better to be extra careful to prevent any potential losses.”
Authorities are also facing challenges along the Yangtze river basin as the water level in the Three Gorges Dam reservoir has risen to 161.1 metres, the highest ever in July, according to China’s Ministry of Water Resources.
Heavy rainfall is anticipated in the upper reaches of the river over the next 10 days, with a new round of floods expected to flow into the reservoir around 16 July, Changjiang Water Resource Commission said.
A flood with a peak flow of 45,000 cubic metres per second is forecasted to enter the reservoir on Friday, and two other significant water surges are expected in mid-July.
Indian customs to pay £9,250 to Chinese woman left stuck for 5 years
A court in India has ordered the customs department to pay Rs1m (£9,250) to a Chinese woman stuck in the country since being wrongly arrested in 2019.
Cong Ling, 38, a mother of two children, was arrested at the Mumbai airport in 2019 for allegedly smuggling gold worth £277,524 into the country.
She was acquitted in October 2023 but remained stuck in India after the customs department refused to give her a no-objection certificate while it challenged the lower court’s ruling.
On Friday, the Bombay high court directed the customs department to issue a no-objection certificate so Ms Cong could obtain an exit permit to leave India within a week.
The court said the “unnecessary victimisation and harassment” of Ms Cong would “reflect in bilateral relations between two countries”.
It said the compensation amount shall be recovered from the salaries of the customs officials responsible, The Indian Express reported.
“This is nothing but victimising the petitioner without any reason,” the court said.
The conduct of the customs officials was “wrongful, vindictive, reprehensible” and amounted to “gross abuse of their powers”, it added.
The ruling noted that the “state has an obligation to protect the liberty of such foreigners who come to this country and ensure that their liberty isn’t deprived except in accordance with the procedure established by law”.
“Notwithstanding the said guarantee under Article 21 of the constitution, in this case, the customs department acted in a most brazen and perfunctory manner.”
Ms Cong said she took a flight to Delhi from Beijing on 12 December 2019 but the aircraft was forced to land in Mumbai due to bad weather in the capital.
She was intercepted by customs officials at the Mumbai airport who examined her baggage and allegedly found 10 bars of 24-carat gold. She was arrested shortly after on charges of smuggling.
She was acquitted of the charges by a magistrate court on 10 October 2023. The acquittal was later upheld by a sessions court.
But the customs department denied Ms Chong’s application for an exit permit, forcing her to spend nearly five years in India away from her daughters.
In 2017, a former Chinese army surveyor was allowed to go home after being trapped in India for more than 50 years.
Wang Qi claimed he had accidentally crossed the border into India in 1963 and was unable to leave because he wasn’t given the correct exit visa.
Japan removes navy chief as sweeping misconduct probe roils military
Japan has sacked its navy chief and ordered a mass disciplinary action against over 200 military officials who mishandled classified materials and have been charged with misconduct, the defence ministry said on Friday.
Members of the defence ministry and the Self Defence Forces have been accused of violating the sensitive information protection law, falsely claiming allowances for special assignments and wrongfully taking free meals at base cafeterias. The ministerial staff has also been accused of abuse of power.
At least 218 people have been disciplined, with 11 senior officials dismissed, two demoted, 14 forced to take pay cuts, and dozens suspended.
The defence minister has admitted to lack of discipline and issued an apology. The problems are “significantly damaging to the public trust” for the ministry and the military, Minoru Kihara said.
Admiral Ryo Sakai, head of the Maritime Self Defence Force, has been asked to resign and will be replaced on 19 July by Akira Saito, commander-in-chief of the Self Defense Fleet.
An investigation conducted by the defence ministry found that classified information was mishandled on 38 destroyers and submarines, Mr Kihara said, but no sensitive information was leaked outside or caused harm.
People without appropriate clearances were routinely assigned to duties that involved sensitive information.
Mr Kihara said he is giving up a month’s salary but that his responsibility is to stay on and continue to reform the organisation instead of stepping down.
“It is my responsibility to do everything to rebuild the defence ministry and the Self Defense Force under my leadership as quickly as possible and regain the public trust,” he said.
He has pledged to quickly and thoroughly carry out preventive measures “so that we will not breach trust with other countries”.
The scandal has erupted at a time when Japan is seeking to establish itself as a trusted military ally of the Western nations, especially the US. Tokyo has accelerated its military cooperation with the United States, Australia, UK and other western countries in recent years.
China company ‘confines’ employee in room for 4 days to make him quit
An online gaming company in China confined an employee inside a “small dark room” for four days in an attempt to make him resign, sparking a legal battle over labour rights.
Guangzhou Duoyi Network has challenged a court ruling telling the company to compensate the former employee, South China Morning Post reported.
Amid protracted negotiations over his resignation from a Guangzhou subsidiary in Sichuan province, Liu Linzhu arrived at work one day in late 2022 and found that he could no longer log into the system or use his entry pass.
The company told Mr Liu he was required to attend “training” and put him in a small room on a different floor, away from his workstation.
The room had no power supply and was completely dark. And it was sparse save for a table and a chair.
Although Mr Liu was allowed to leave the room “freely” over the next four days and go back home after “work”, he was not assigned any tasks and his mobile phone was confiscated, the Post reported citing court documents.
On the fifth day, Liu’s wife went to the police. That is when the company issued an official notice laying him off.
To avoid paying compensation Guangzhou claimed that Liu was let go because he violated company policies.
In May this year, a court in Sichuan asked the company to pay Liu 380,000 yuan (£40,500) as compensation for mistreating him. The firm openly disagreed with the ruling and published the full court document on its Weibo account.
“We believe that there are many problems with the labour laws which severely hinder economic development and are arbitrarily enforced by judges who distort the facts,” it said.
The records of the trial are yet to be made public on the court’s website.
The company accused Mr Liu of viewing nude pictures and browsing unrelated websites during working hours.
Mr Liu argued that, as a game art editor, he viewed the images for work purposes.
The court agreed with him.
It ruled that confining Mr Liu to the “dark room” was illegal under the labour contract law, which mandates employers provide proper working conditions for employees, the Post reported.
The company has made no further comment on the matter.
Nearly 90% Amazon India workers don’t get enough time to use bathroom
Nearly 90 per cent of Amazon India’s warehouse employees say they are not allowed sufficient time to use the restroom, according to a new survey that adds to a growing body of evidence of poor working conditions at the multinational corporation.
The results of the survey – conducted by the UNI Global Union, the Amazon India Workers Association and Jarrow Insights, a workers’ cooperative based in London – are detailed in an exhaustive report on the conditions that warehouse workers and drivers of the e-commerce giant in India have to daily endure.
The survey, conducted online between 2 February and 22 March this year, records the responses of 1,238 Amazon India warehouse workers and 600 delivery drivers, accounting for 2 to 5 per cent of the company’s warehouse and delivery workforce in the country.
It comes on the heels of a series of reports about hazardous working conditions at Amazon India’s warehouses.
The Independent last month reported an incident at the company’s Manesar warehouse in the northern Haryana state where workers were allegedly asked to make a pledge that they would not take any breaks, including to drink water or go to the bathroom, until they met their targets as they worked amid a brutal heatwave.
India’s labour ministry intervened after the national human rights commission asked for an investigation.
Responding to the ministry, Amazon India confirmed the incident but played it down as “unfortunate and isolated”.
The survey paints a contradictory picture.
Nearly 81 per cent of Amazon India warehouse employees say work targets set by the company are difficult or very difficult to achieve.
The targets are so demanding, in fact, they barely have time to rest, socialise and sometimes even eat.
“We aren’t even able to talk to anyone at work due to work pressure,” one warehouse worker tells The Independent, speaking anonymously for fear of reprisal.
The workers describe labouring for 10 hours straight on their feet in 35C heat, all for pay of Rs 10,000 (£94) a month.
A typical workday at the Manesar warehouse starts at 8.30am and ends at 6.30pm, with two 30-minute breaks in between. A worker in the inbound department unloads four trucks a day on average, each containing around 10,000 parcels. The number can go up when Amazon offers sales, according to The Indian Express.
Nearly 87 per cent of the company’s warehouse workers say they do not have enough time to use the toilet at work.
A worker who spends her day sorting products says managers come looking for employees they think take too long in the bathroom.
“The designated break rooms are small and unbearably hot, so many female workers end up resting in the bathrooms during their breaks,” she says, responding to the survey.
“But managers come searching for us if they feel we have stayed too long, pressuring us to return to work.”
Another worker says they are ticked off for being late if they take more than 10 minutes in the washroom.
Amazon claims the allegations are “factually incorrect and unsubstantiated”.
“We have not been given access to the material being quoted by The Independent,” a spokesperson for the company tells The Independent, referring to the survey.
“However, from the small amount of information that has been shared with us, we believe these claims are factually incorrect, unsubstantiated, and contradict what our own employees tell us directly. Moreover, the methodology to gather this data appears at best questionable and at worst deliberately designed to deliver on a specific narrative that certain groups are trying to claim as fact.”
An internal survey conducted by the company shows that 87 per cent of the workers at the Manesar facility are satisfied with their jobs, the spokesperson claims, “with as many as eight out of 10 recommending Amazon as a great place to work”.
“The reality is there’s nothing more important to us than the safety and wellbeing of our employees and associates, and we comply with all relevant laws and regulations. Our facilities are industry-leading and provide competitive pay, comfortable working conditions, and specially designed infrastructure to ensure a safe and healthy working environment for all,” the spokesperson says.
The report by the worker associations, however, notes that Amazon enforces productivity targets through a “combination of human managers and automated systems” which creates an uncompromising structure and penalises workers for human error.
Amazon workers have previously said the rigid nature of the targets and the attendance policy leads to many being blacklisted.
A blacklisted worker is essentially barred from ever working for Amazon again.
“They blacklist people on small issues, issue warning letters and terminate them from the company,” a worker says, responding to the survey. Another says workers “are placed in the identity blocklist” if they do not meet targets.
“If we miss a day due to health reasons or family emergencies, our IDs are blocked, impacting our livelihoods,” the Hindustan Times newspaper quoted an unnamed worker as saying.
The Amazon spokesperson claims the productivity targets are in keeping with industry practice.
“Like most companies, we have performance expectations for every employee and associate and we measure actual performance against those expectations. When setting those targets we take into account time in role, experience and the safety and wellbeing of our employees and associates,” the spokesperson says.
“We support people who are not performing to the levels expected with dedicated coaching to help them improve. We are confident that our targets are comfortably achievable by the trained associates. We also expand the associate pool whenever we find it necessary.”
The report by the worker associations, however, notes that 44.9 per cent of warehouse workers and 47.3 per cent of delivery drivers feel the working environment at Amazon is unsafe.
The drivers say they have to resort to unsafe driving to meet targets. “Sometimes, due to delivery targets, we have to drive fast. Then, whom should we ask to look out for our safety? There is no hearing of our grievances,” the report quotes a driver as saying.
“The company says that the weight of an order is upto 40kg but we are given upto 70kg,” says another. “While carrying it, we have to take care of our own safety and that of others which sometimes leads to situations that can become very difficult.”
The report records 46.4 per cent of Amazon India warehouse workers and 37.2 per cent of drivers complaining that their salaries are insufficient to meet basic needs.
The financial strain is exacerbated by stagnating pay amid rising inflation. “I have been with Amazon for eight years. There has been no pay raise in four years. Now the new joining associates and the old associates are on the same salary,” says a warehouse worker.
Amazon says that it provides “fair and competitive wages” and regularly reviews its wage structure against industry benchmarks, “ensuring adherence to all applicable wage laws across the states where we operate”.
“Our comprehensive wage package aims to incentivise and reward our associates through a combination of fixed pay, monthly attendance bonuses, and additional incentives, enabling them to enhance their earning potential,” the company spokesperson tells The Independent.
“In addition, all associates working at our buildings are entitled to Provident Fund and Employees’ State Insurance Corporate benefits, in accordance with applicable laws. All associates have medical, personal accident and term insurance, over and above the minimum statutory requirement of ESIC.”
Amazon has faced scrutiny for making workers labour in abysmal conditions in other countries as well, including the US and the UK.
A 2019 report found that workers at an Amazon warehouse in the UK were having to urinate in plastic bottles rather than go to the toilet during their shifts. Worker unions said they were taking action after more than 600 reports were made from Amazon warehouses to the health and safety executive in the past four years.
Australia charges soldier and her husband with spying for Russia
An Australian soldier and her husband have been charged with spying for Russia amid its escalating war in Ukraine.
Army private Kira Korolev, 40, and Igor Korolev, 62, were arrested from their Brisbane home on Thursday.
They were accused of collecting information about the Australian military to share with Moscow.
They were scheduled to appear before a Brisbane court on Friday, said federal police commissioner Reece Kershaw.
The couple migrated from Russia over a decade ago. Ms Korolev became an Australian citizen in 2016 and her husband in 2020.
They are the first Australians to be charged under the country’s sweeping espionage laws enacted in 2018. They face a maximum penalty of 15 years in prison if convicted.
Ms Korolev, who was an “information systems technician” in the army, undertook “non-declared” travel to Russia in 2023 while on leave, the police commissioner said.
The husband, a labourer, allegedly accessed Ms Korolev’s work account from their Brisbane home and sent requested classified information to her in Russia.
“We allege her husband would access requested material and would send to his wife in Russia. We allege they sought that information with the intention of providing it to Russian authorities,” Mr Kershaw said.
“Whether that information was handed over remains a key focus of our investigation.”
Mike Burgess, director general of the Australian Security Intelligence Organisation, said the couple were held after a “lengthy and complex investigation”.
If sufficient evidence is found that they indeed shared the classified information with Russia, the charges could be upgraded. In that case, the potential maximum prison sentence upon conviction would be 25 years or life.
Mr Burgess said spying was not a “quaint” notion and could have “catastrophic consequences”.
“Espionage is real. Multiple countries are seeking to steal Australia’s secrets,” he said.
Australian prime minister Anthony Albanese said he had been “briefed extensively” about the matter and that the charges showed law enforcement agencies were continually vigilant.
It was reported last year that Australia had quietly expelled a suspected Russian spy ring comprising embassy and consular staff.
Moscow last year accused Australia of “Russophobic hysteria” for cancelling the lease on land where it wanted to build a new embassy.
The Australian government judged the site to be a security risk because it was close to parliament.
Man proposes to girlfriend through her favourite crossword
A filmmaker from Pune in the western Indian state of Maharashtra has proposed to his girlfriend using the crossword of The Indian Express newspaper.
The man, who chose to stay anonymous, got in touch with the daily’s puzzle editor to place the message “Marry Me” in last Thursday’s crossword, with the clue reading, “Words with a nice ring to them?”
He also requested the word “champa,” Hindi for the Frangipani flower, which is of significance to the couple.
“I wanted the proposal to have something that’s part of our everyday life. I also wanted it to be intimate, rather than in a public space. And since IE’s crossword is something we have done together many times, it would be an unexpected surprise,” he told the newspaper.
The woman described being “in shock throughout”.
The couple, who are in a long-distance relationship, did the crossword regularly together over Whatsapp which gave the man the idea to incorporate it in his proposal.
Anant Goenka, executive director of the newspaper, shared the story on his social media, writing: “The girlfriend, a puzzle-loving historian, could not go a day without doing the Express crossword with her morning chai. The boyfriend emails the Express puzzles team enlisting our help to have ‘marry me’ in our mini crossword.”
The day of the proposal, 4 July, the man recalled getting anxious as his girlfriend struggled with a few of the clues.
“When she clicked on 7-Across, the pivotal clue, the answer did not strike her. So she moved on. Meanwhile, I kept fidgeting with the ring in my pocket. Seven minutes later, with more letters filled in, Juhi finally had her eureka moment,” he said.
As soon as she said the words “Marry me” out loud, he pulled the ring out and proposed.
“The moment she said it, everything started moving very fast. I pulled the ring out of my pocket and went down on one knee. Of course, she said yes!”
The crossword enthusiasts spent the next few minutes solving the rest of the crossword together, and called it one of their “slowest attempts”, clocking in at 12 minutes and 57 seconds.
The Internet reacted very happily to the sweet story, with several people praising the daily and the puzzles editor for going along with the idea and many joking this would induce them to start reading the newspaper and solve the crossword as well.
“What an absolutely endearing tale! Finding love between the lines, literally!” said one user on X.