NAIROBI (Reuters) – The number of people killed by two car bombs that exploded outside the education ministry in Somalia’s capital Mogadishu has risen to at least 120 people, the health minister said on Monday.

The al Qaeda-linked Islamist group al Shabaab claimed responsibility for Saturday’s blasts, Somalia’s deadliest since a truck bomb killed more than 500 people at the same location five years ago.

The first of the explosions hit the education ministry at around 2 p.m. on Saturday. The second hit minutes later as ambulances arrived and people gathered to help the victims.

Health minister Ali Haji Aden said the death toll stood at 120, while a further 150 people were being treated in hospital.

Al Shabaab, which is seeking to topple the government and establish its own rule based on an extreme interpretation of Islamic law, frequently stages attacks in Mogadishu and elsewhere.

The Islamist group has been under pressure since August when President Hassan Sheikh Mohamud began an offensive, supported by the United States and allied local militias, against them, and sought to dismantle their financial network.

Analysts say the offensive is the most serious threat al Shabaab has faced in years.

(Reporting by Abdi Sheikh; Writing by Hereward Holland, Editing by Angus MacSwan)

By Alex Lawler

ABU DHABI (Reuters) – OPEC raised its forecasts for world oil demand in the medium-and longer-term in an annual outlook released on Monday and said $12.1 trillion of investment is needed to meet this demand despite the energy transition.

The view from the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries, in its 2022 World Oil Outlook, contrasts with that of other forecasters which see oil demand reaching a plateau before 2030 due to the rise of renewable energy and electric cars.    Another decade of oil demand growth would be a boost for OPEC, whose 13 members depend on oil income. The group has been arguing that oil should be part of the energy transition and that focus by investors on economic, social and governance (ESG) issues has worsened an investment shortfall.    “The overall investment number for the oil sector is $12.1 trillion out to 2045,” OPEC Secretary General Haitham Al Ghais wrote in the foreword to the report, which said the figure was up from last year’s estimate.    “However, chronic underinvestment into the global oil industry in recent years, due to industry downturns, the COVID-19 pandemic, as well as policies centred on ending financing in fossil fuel projects, is a major cause of concern.”    OPEC made a shift in 2020 when the pandemic hit demand, saying it would eventually slow after years of predicting ever-increasing consumption. In the report, OPEC maintained its view that world demand will plateau after 2035.

GRAPHIC: OPEC World Oil Demand Forecast https://fingfx.thomsonreuters.com/gfx/mkt/zgpobwzamvd/Pasted%20image%201667239252245.png

    Other predictions from companies and banks see oil demand peaking earlier.     The International Energy Agency on Thursday for the first time in its history of modelling said demand for all fossil fuels was set to peak, with oil demand levelling off in the middle of the next decade.             ENERGY SECURITY DEMAND BOOST    The report said world oil demand will reach 103 million barrels per day in 2023, up 2.7 million bpd from 2022. The 2023 total demand is up 1.4 million bpd from last year’s prediction.     OPEC also raised its demand forecasts for the medium term to 2027, saying the figure is up by almost 2 million bpd by the end of the period from last year.    It said the upward revision reflects a more robust recovery now seen in 2022 and 2023 and a “strong focus on energy security issues” leading to a slower substitution of oil by other fuels such as natural gas, whose price has soared due to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.    By 2030, OPEC sees world demand averaging 108.3 million bpd, up from 2021, and lifted its 2045 figure to 109.8 million bpd from 108.2 million bpd in 2021. The group had lowered the 2045projection over the last few years.     OPEC and its allies, known as OPEC+, are again cutting supply to support the market. The report sees supply restraint continuing in the medium term, with OPEC output in 2027 lower than in 2022 as non-OPEC supply grows.    Still, OPEC is upbeat about its later prospects, seeing its market share rising. U.S. tight crude supply is seen peakingafter the late 2020s, rather than around 2030 last year.    “Oil is expected to remain the number one fuel in the global primary energy mix,” the report said.  

(Reporting by Alex Lawler; editing by David Evans)

By Nate Raymond

(Reuters) – The U.S. Supreme Court on Monday declined to hear Turkey’s bid to dismiss two lawsuits filed by demonstrators seeking monetary damages after accusing Turkish security forces of injuring them in a 2017 protest in Washington during a visit by President Tayyip Erdogan.

The justices turned away an appeal by Turkey of lower court rulings allowing the litigation to proceed, rejecting the NATO ally’s argument that it has immunity from such legal action in the United States under a federal law called the Foreign Sovereign Immunities Act.

At issue in the litigation is a melee involving members of Erdogan’s security detail that occurred as protesters demonstrated outside the Turkish ambassador’s residence in Washington on May 6, 2017. Erdogan was in the U.S. capital to meet then-President Donald Trump. The incident strained relations between Turkey and the United States.

Two lawsuits were filed in 2018 – one case brought by 15 plaintiffs and the other by five – seeking to hold Turkey’s government responsible and asking for monetary damages for injuries that included concussions, seizures and lost teeth. The plaintiffs sought tens of millions of dollars, according to court papers.

The Foreign Sovereign Immunities Act limits the jurisdiction of American courts over lawsuits against foreign governments.

Andreas Akaras, a lawyer for some of the demonstrators, said in a statement that he and his colleagues “look forward to holding Turkey accountable in a court of law for its terrorizing attack against our clients.”

A lawyer representing Turkey declined to comment.

Turkey has blamed the brawl on demonstrators linked to the Kurdistan Workers Party. The police chief in the U.S. capital described the incident as a “brutal attack” on peaceful protesters.

Criminal assault charges were brought in Washington against several Turkish security agents and others involved. Two of the defendants – not members of Erdogan’s security team – pleaded guilty. Prosecutors dropped charges against 11 agents in 2018.

President Joe Biden’s administration had urged the Supreme Court not to hear Turkey’s appeal to avoid the lawsuits, saying that when foreign security personnel deploy force in ways that are not related to protecting officials from bodily harm they are acting outside their legal protections.

Lower courts ruled against Turkey. The U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit in 2021 ruled that while members of the Turkish security detail had a right to protect Erdogan, their actions in this incident did not meet that exception.

Turkey had argued that a failure by the Supreme Court to reverse that ruling threatened to disrupt U.S. foreign relations and “invites reciprocal erosion of immunity for U.S. security agents protecting American presidents, diplomats and missions abroad.”

(Reporting by Nate Raymond in Boston; Editing by Will Dunham)

By Nathan Gomes, Kannaki Deka and David Carnevali

(Reuters) – Emerson Electric Co will sell a majority stake in its climate technologies unit to Blackstone Inc in a deal that values the business at $14 billion, as the U.S. industrial firm pivots to supplying to a booming automation market.

The company will receive an upfront payment of about $9.5 billion, it said on Monday, which it will use to scoop up more firms, especially in the automation segment.

Emerson’s shares edged up 1% in a weak broader market as the company also beat fourth-quarter earnings and revenue.

Businesses are accelerating their efforts to automate their operations amid a shortage of factory workers, and Emerson has doubled down on its software strategy to capture that shift.

The company sold its division that makes waste disposal equipment and hot water dispensers to Whirlpool Corp and merged its software units with smaller rival Aspen Technology.

GRAPHIC: Emerson vs S&P 500 https://graphics.reuters.com/EMERSON-STAKE/mopakmdlapa/EMR%20YTD%20shr%20graphic.png

Emerson, which will retain about 45% stake in the climate tech unit, said Blackstone and co-investors Abu Dhabi Investment Authority and Singapore state fund GIC would contribute $4.4 billion in equity toward the deal, which would be supplemented by $5.5 billion of debt financing. The debt will be equivalent to about four times the new company’s annual cash flow.

“(Emerson) is significantly re-orienting its portfolio to result in a more focused and potentially higher growth enterprise,” Citi Research analysts said.

The deal, expected to close in the first half of 2023, is the latest in a flurry of private equity transactions this year as a selloff in equities on recession worries hammered valuations.

The Climate Technologies business, which will be structured as a joint venture, generated net sales of $5 billion in fiscal 2022.

The deal values the unit at 12.7 times its cash flow in fiscal 2022, a premium to peers such as manufacturers of components and industrial companies that own HVAC businesses, which trade at roughly 10.5 and 11.5 times, respectively.

“The business is poised for accelerated growth as it leads the way in helping consumers and businesses shift to more energy-efficient heating and cooling products as part of their carbon reduction efforts,” global head of Blackstone Private Equity Joe Baratta said.

Emerson said it plans to use proceeds from the deal to invest in automation-related businesses and spend around $2 billion on share repurchases in 2023.

Centerview Partners LLC and Goldman Sachs are financial advisers to Emerson, while Barclays is the lead financial adviser to Blackstone.

(Reporting by Nathan Gomes and Kannaki Deka in Bengaluru and David Carnevali in New York; Additional reporting by Jaiveer Singh Shekhawat in Bengaluru; Editing by Shailesh Kuber, Sriraj Kalluvila and Lisa Shumaker)

By Nigel Hunt and Naveen Thukral

LONDON/SINGAPORE (Reuters) -Grain was flowing out of Ukraine at a record pace on Monday under an initiative led by the United Nations aimed at easing global food shortages despite Russia warning it was risky to continue after it pulled out of the pact.

Russia said on Monday that the deal was hardly feasible as it was impossible to guarantee the safety of shipping after its withdrawal over the weekend following what it said was a major Ukrainian drone attack on its fleet in Crimea.

Other participants, however, were pressing ahead with the deal while France said it was talking to other European Union states about how to boost Ukraine grain exports via land routes.

Ukraine is one of the world’s largest grain exporters and the conflict with Russia led to the closure of its seaports in February, driving up food prices and contributing to a steep rise in acute hunger across the globe.

The deal, signed on July 22, created a safe corridor to allow exports to resume from three Ukrainian ports and helped to ease the crisis with more than 9.5 million tonnes of corn, wheat, sunflower products, barley, rapeseed and soy exported under the pact.

U.N. aid chief Martin Griffiths said on Monday the corridor does not provide cover for military action, adding there were no ships involved in a deal were transiting it on the night of Oct. 29, when Russia says its vessels in the Bay of Sevastopol in Crimea were attacked.

A record volume of 354,500 tonnes of agricultural products was carried on vessels leaving Ukrainian ports on Monday as part of the Black Sea grain deal, a spokesperson for Odesa’s military administration said.

“Civilian cargo ships can never be a military target or held hostage. The food must flow,” tweeted Amir Abdullah, the U.N. official who coordinates the programme.

Russia, however, cast doubts about the future of the pact.

“In conditions when Russia is talking about the impossibility of guaranteeing the safety of shipping in these areas, such a deal is hardly feasible, and it takes on a different character – much more risky, dangerous and unguaranteed,” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters.

GREATER RISKS

Lloyd’s of London insurer Ascot said on Monday it was pausing writing cover for new shipments using the Ukrainian grains corridor.

“From today we are pausing on quoting new shipments until we better understand the situation,” Ascot head of cargo Chris McGill told Reuters. “Insurance that has already been issued still stands.”

Marcus Baker, global head of marine and cargo with broker Marsh, said that the change in the risk environment over the last 48 hours was “very significant”.

“Given the change in circumstances it is not surprising that underwriters have taken the decision to suspend the facility until there is greater clarity,” Baker said.

Turkey, which helped broker the deal, remained committed to the deal which involves the inspection of cargoes at a Joint Coordination Centre in Istanbul.

“Even if Russia behaves hesitantly because it didn’t receive the same benefits, we will continue decisively our efforts to serve humanity,” President Tayyip Erdogan said in a speech.

Turkish Defence Minister Hulusi Akar told his Russian counterpart Sergei Shoigu on Monday that Moscow should re-evaluate the suspension of its participation.

GRAIN PRICES CLIMB

Wheat prices rose on Monday, climbing around 5% to $8.71 a bushel in Chicago, but remained far below a peak of $13.63-1/2 set in early March shortly after the conflict began.

The strong pace of wheat exports from Russia, which harvested a record crop this summer, has helped to bolster supplies on the world market.

Consultancy Sovecon on Monday estimated that Russia would export 4.5 million tonnes of wheat in October, up from 2.8 million in the same month last year.

Corn prices rose around 1% to $6.87-1/2 a bushel in Chicago on Monday while soybean oil rose more than 2% to 73.36 cents per lb.

Traders warned that hundreds of thousands of tonnes of wheat booked for delivery to Africa and the Middle East could now be at risk.

“If I have to replace a vessel which was due to come from Ukraine, what are the options? Not much really,” said one Singapore-based grains trader who supplies wheat to buyers in Asia and the Middle East.

Ukraine is also a major exporter of corn and there were concerns that shipments to the European Union were at risk.

“As far as Europe is concerned, corn is a bigger issue than wheat as we are getting into peak season for Ukrainian corn in November,” said one grain trader said.

Analysts warned that although global agricultural commodity prices have come off record highs in recent months, local retail food prices remain high and could now face further upside.

“Typically, it takes about two months for higher grain prices to filter through the supply chain and impact consumers at the retail level,” said a Sydney-based analyst.

“But food processors do not have much forward coverage, so it is likely to be a lot quicker.”

(Repoting by Reuters bureaux, writing by Nigel Hunt, editing by David Evans)

By Johann M Cherian and Sruthi Shankar

(Reuters) -Britain’s FTSE 100 closed at a fresh five-week high on Monday as a fall in sterling lifted dollar-earners such as AstraZeneca and Unilever, while shares in EasyJet rallied on speculation of a takeover by British Airways owner IAG.

The blue-chip index rose 0.7% to close at its strongest level since Sept. 23 and marked its first monthly rise in three.

Global companies such as AstraZeneca, Unilever and BP, which draw large parts of their revenue overseas, rose nearly 2% as sterling slid. [GBP/]

Investors will look to the Bank of England and the U.S. Federal Reserve for any signs of easing in their aggressive monetary policy tightening cycles, with each expected to hike rates by 75 basis points this week.

“It all adds up to an increasingly difficult tightrope for monetary policy makers on both sides of the Atlantic to walk, as they look to bring inflation under control without doing too much economic damage in the process,” Russ Mould, investment director at AJ Bell, said.

UK markets have recouped some of the sharp losses made earlier in October when former Prime Minister Liz Truss’s economic plan sent borrowing costs sharply higher and triggered political turmoil.

Truss was replaced by former finance minister Rishi Sunak who reversed almost all of her plans and brought a measure of relief to the UK’s financial markets.

The FTSE 250 index, most exposed to the domestic economy, edged down 0.2% on Monday but marked monthly gains of 4.2%.

The banking sector gained 1.3% after a Sunday Times report said more windfall taxes in the UK were unlikely.

Easyjet jumped 6.1% after a Times report said that International Consolidated Airlines Group (IAG) is to renew its EU consolidation plans, fuelling speculation that Easyjet could be a takeover target. IAG rose 5.4%.

Centrica Plc rose 4.7% after brokerage Jefferies upgraded the stock to “buy” and raised its price target, citing strong fundamentals.

(Reporting by Johann M Cherian in Bengaluru; Editing by Subhranshu Sahu, Shailesh Kuber and Andrew Heavens)

By Jonathan Saul and Carolyn Cohn

LONDON (Reuters) -Lloyd’s of London insurer Ascot is suspending writing cover for new shipments using the Ukrainian grains corridor in the Black Sea until it has more clarity about the situation there, a senior official said on Monday.

Moscow said it was forced to pull out of the Black Sea grain shipping deal after blasts damaged Russian navy ships in the Crimean port of Sevastopol on Saturday.

“From today we are pausing on quoting new shipments until we better understand the situation,” Ascot head of cargo Chris McGill told Reuters. “Insurance that has already been issued still stands.”

Ascot and broker Marsh launched a facility for grain traders in late July to provide up to $50 million in cargo cover for every voyage.

The cargo facility, whose underwriting risk has been shared by a number of syndicates in the Lloyd’s market, has been used by a significant proportion of the shipments to date.

“Any shipments that were quoted last week are valid for seven days. However, we had seen a drop off in submissions last week,” Ascot’s McGill said.

“It’s new shipments coming to the market since the news that will need consideration.”

Marcus Baker, global head of marine and cargo with Marsh, said separately that the change in the risk environment over the last 48 hours was “very significant”.

“Given the change in circumstances it is not surprising that underwriters have taken the decision to suspend the facility until there is greater clarity,” Baker said.

Russia’s announcement on Saturday that it was suspending its role in the U.N.-backed programme that escorts cargo ships through the Black Sea fanned fears it would reimpose a blockade on Ukrainian grain.

Ukraine confirmed on Monday that 12 ships had set sail. The 354,500 tonnes of grain they carried was the most in a day since the programme began, suggesting a backlog was being cleared after exports were interrupted on Sunday.

“It is hoped that the pledge not to attack commercial shipping will continue to stand,” another insurance market source said.

Ukraine is one of the world’s largest grain exporters and the conflict with Russia led to the closure of its seaports in February, driving up food prices and contributing to a steep rise in acute hunger across the globe.

“Insurers tell us their premiums may leap by a quarter or a half for shipping crossing the Black Sea,” U.N. aid chief Martin Griffiths told the Security Council on Monday.

(Reporting by Jonathan Saul and Carolyn Cohn, additional reporting by Michelle Nichols in New YorkEditing by David Goodman and Tomasz Janowski)

By Djaffar al Katanty and Edward McAllister

YALOLIA, Democratic Republic of Congo (Reuters) – At a village clinic in central Congo, separated from the world by a tangle of waterways and forests, six-year-old Angelika Lifafu grips her dress and screams as nurses in protective suits pick at one of hundreds of boils that trouble her delicate skin.

Her uncle, 12-year-old Lisungi Lifafu, sits at the foot of her bed, facing away from the sunlight that pours through the doorway and pains his swollen, weeping eyes. When nurses approach, he raises his chin, but cannot look up.

The children have monkeypox, a disease first detected in Congo 50 years ago, but cases of which have spiked in West and Central Africa since 2019. The illness received little attention until it spread worldwide this year, infecting 77,000 people.

Global health bodies have counted far fewer cases in Africa during the current outbreak than in Europe and the United States, which snapped up the limited number of vaccines this year when the illness arrived at their shores.

But the outbreak, and death toll, in Congo could be much greater than recorded in official statistics, Reuters reporting shows, in large part because testing in underequipped, rural areas is so limited and effective medicines are unavailable.

During a six-day trip to the remote region of Tshopo this month, Reuters reporters found about 20 monkeypox patients, including two who had died, whose cases were not recorded until reporters visited. None of them, including Angelika and Lisungi, had access to vaccines or anti-viral drugs.

The shortage of testing facilities and poor transport links makes tracing the virus nearly impossible, more than a dozen health workers said.

Asked about undercounting, the Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) acknowledged that its data did not capture the full extent of the outbreak.

In the West, only about 10 people have died of monkeypox this year, figures from the U.S. CDC show. Europe and the United States have been able to vaccinate at-risk communities. Suspected cases are routinely tested, isolated and treated early, which improves survival rates, experts said. Case numbers in Europe and the United States have stabilized and begun to fall.

But in poorer African countries where many people do not have quick access to health facilities, or are not aware of the dangers, over 130 have died, almost all in Congo, according to the Africa CDC.

No monkeypox vaccines are publicly available in Africa.

Without treatment, Angelika and Lisungi can only wait for the illness to run its course. Ahead of them lies a myriad of possible outcomes including recovery, blindness, or, as was the case with a family member in August, death.

“These children have a disease that makes them suffer so much,” said Lisungi’s father Litumbe Lifafu at the clinic in Yalolia, a village of scattered mud huts 1,200 kilometres (750 miles) from the capital Kinshasa.

“We demand the government provides medicines for us poor farmers, and the vaccine to fight this disease.”

HISTORY REPEATS

The World Health Organization last year called out the “moral failure” of the COVID-19 pandemic response, when African nations found themselves at the back of the queue for vaccines, tests and treatment.

But those failures are being repeated a year on with monkeypox, the health workers consulted by Reuters said. This risks future flare-ups of the disease in Africa and globally, experts said.

While the sudden demand from Western countries sucked up available vaccines, poor countries such as Congo, where the disease has existed long enough to be endemic, have been slow to seek supplies from the WHO and partners.

Congo health minister Jean-Jacques Mbungani told Reuters Congo was in talks with the WHO to buy vaccines, but no formal request had been made. A spokesperson for Gavi, the vaccine alliance, said it had not received requests from African countries where the virus was endemic.

A WHO spokeswoman said that in the absence of available vaccines, countries should instead focus on surveillance and contact tracing.

“History repeats itself,” said Professor Dimie Ogoina, president of the independent Nigerian Infectious Diseases Society. Time and again, he said, disease containment in Africa does not get the funding it needs until wealthier nations are at risk.

“It happened with HIV, it happened with Ebola and with COVID-19, and it is happening again with monkeypox.”

Without adequate resources, the true spread of the virus is unknowable, he and other experts said.

“In Africa we are working blind,” said Ogoina. “The case counts are grossly underestimated.”

Monkeypox is spread through close contact with skin lesions. For most, it resolves within weeks. Young children and the immune compromised are especially vulnerableto severe complications.

The Africa CDC says that Congo has had more than 4,000 suspected and confirmed cases and 154 deaths this year, based in part on health authority data. That is far lower than the 27,000-odd cases recorded in the United States and 7,000 in Spain. African nations with outbreaks include Ghana, where there are about 600 suspected and confirmed cases, and Nigeria, where there are nearly 2,000.

“Yes, there is an undercount,” said Ahmed Ogwell Ouma, acting director of the Africa CDC. “The communities where the monkeypox is spreading generally don’t have access to regular health facilities.” He said the CDC could not currently say how big the undercount was.

Congo’s health minister Mbungani said testing capabilities were lacking outside Kinshasa but did not respond to a request for comment about missed cases.

THE FRONT LINE

African countries hoped that the WHO’s decision in July to declare monkeypox a public health emergency of international concern would mobilise resources.

WHO dispatched some 40,000 tests to Africa, including 1,500 to Congo, said Ambrose Talisuna, WHO’s monkeypox incident manager on the continent.

This month, Congo’s National Institute for Biomedical Research began a clinical trial of the antiviral drug tecovirimat on monkeypox patients. While no vaccines are available for public consumption, trials are underway on health workers in Congo with Bavarian Nordic’s Imvanex vaccine, health minister Mbungani said.

But in central Congo, little has changed.

Yalolia, where Angelika and Lisungi are patients, is reachable only by motorbike tracks that thread tunnel-like through the dense jungle, or by canoes carved from felled tree trunks. An old road connecting to nearby villages was cut off years ago when a series of wooden bridges collapsed.

In August, Lisungi’s older brother developed a rash and had trouble breathing. The family thought it was smallpox. When his condition worsened, a doctor put him on an intravenous drip. He died before it was empty.

Grief stricken, Lisungi hugged his brother’s infected corpse. Two weeks later, in early September, he too developed a rash and his eyes swelled shut. Then Angelika fell ill.

Lisumbe took the children to Yalolia where they were diagnosed with monkeypox based on their symptoms. He sold his belongings to buy medicine to reduce their fevers.

The nurses caring for them seethe at the lack of treatments.

“If there is a vaccine, it is us who should have it. If there is a treatment, it is us who should have it,” said nurse Marcel Osekasomba.

None of the cases were reported to authorities until Reuters visited Yalolia with a local health official called Theopiste Maloko. He only went to the village at Reuters’ suggestion.

Without test results, they are now logged as suspected cases.

ISOLATED CASES

Tshopo, nearly as big as the United Kingdom, is heavily wooded and carved up by the Congo River and its many winding tributaries. Maloko’s job is to track cases over an area spanning 5,000 square kilometres. But he cannot afford gasoline and has no means of transport.

When nurses took samples from sores on Angelika’s leg and placed them in a polystyrene cool box strapped to the back of a motorbike, Maloko was sceptical.

To avoid spoiling, samples need to be kept cold and reach a laboratory within 48 hours, but they often do not, he said. The nearest testing lab is in Kinshasa; results take weeks or months.

“We are suffering. This is really our cry of alarm. We are raising our voices so that someone will hear,” he said.

Sometimes samples are not even taken.

The village of Yalanga is a day’s journey from Yalolia by land and boat. Surrounded by jungle, it has no phone network or electricity. When the light fades, patients at the health centre lie in the dark on beds of hard bamboo.

The clinic, a small building with a tin roof and five rooms, has had three cases in recent months. To notify authorities of a new case, nurses must travel half a day to get phone reception. When they are busy, getting away is impossible. The recent cases were recorded weeks late, said nurse Alingo Likaka Manasse.

Lituka Wenda Dety, a 41-year-old mother, thinks she got sick from eating infected bush meat. At the height of her illness in August, her throat was so sore she struggled to swallow her own saliva.

Round scars still dot Dety’s body, and her bones ache. She is grieving. When she was ill in hospital, her six-month-old son caught monkeypox and died. He is buried in a patch of sandy earth beside her mud brick home.

At the end of the day, Dety and her family gather around the small rectangular grave. She whispers prayers.

“We want there to be a vaccination campaign,” she said. “Going by what we have suffered, if many people catch this disease it will be catastrophic.”

(Reporting by Djaffar al Katanty in Tshopo and Edward McAllister in Dakar; Writing by Edward McAllister; additional reporting by James Macharia Chege in Johannesburg and Stanis Bujakera in Kinshasa; Editing by Frank Jack Daniel)

By David Shepardson

(Reuters) -The United Auto Workers on Monday said it was seeking an election to represent workers at a General Motors/LG Energy battery cell manufacturing joint venture in Ohio after the companies refused to recognize the union.

The UAW said it had filed a petition with the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) on behalf of approximately 900 workers at Ultium Cells after a majority of workers had signed cards authorizing the union to represent them.

“By refusing to recognize their majority will, Ultium – which is a joint venture between General Motors and LG Energy Solution – has decided to ignore democracy and delay the recognition process,” UAW President Ray Curry said in a statement.

In August, the Warren, Ohio Ultium plant began production, the first of least four planned U.S. battery factories by the joint venture.

Ultium said it “respects workers’ freedom to choose union representation and the efforts of the UAW to organize battery cell manufacturing workers at our Ohio manufacturing site.”

Ultium added it would comply with federal labor law that “protects our employees’ right to freely decide unionization through a voluntary election conducted by the NLRB.”

Ultium participated in meetings with the union about a process for certifying representation without going through an NLRB election, the UAW said.

GM deferred comment to Ultium. LG Energy did not immediately comment.

In May, President Joe Biden, in a trip to South Korea, expressed support for workers seeking to unionize joint venture battery plants. Detroit’s Big Three automakers all have battery plants in the works with Korean partners.

“For every joint venture that manufactures electric vehicle batteries would be made stronger by collective bargaining relationships with American unions,” Biden said.

South Korea and the Biden administration have sparred over a U.S. decision in August to revise a tax credit making all EVs assembled outside North America immediately ineligible for tax credits, including all current Hyundai GM.N and Kia EVs for sale in the United States.

GM and LG Energy are considering an Indiana site for a fourth U.S. battery plant expected to cost about $2.5 billion. They are already building a $2.6 billion battery cell plant in Michigan, set to open in 2024, and a $2.3 billion Tennessee plant to be completed in 2023.

The White House did not immediately comment on the UAW statement.

(Reporting by David Shepardson; Editing by Mark Porter, Tomasz Janowski and David Gregorio)

By Siddharth Cavale, Steve Stecklow and David Gauthier-Villars

NEW YORK/LONDON/ISTANBUL (Reuters) -In March, clothing retailer Gap Inc joined numerous Western companies in announcing that it was halting deliveries to Russia to protest its invasion of Ukraine.

“As a values-led company, one that is proud to do the right thing over the past 53 years in business, at this time, we have also suspended deliveries to Russia, where we have a small franchise presence,” the San Francisco-based company announced in a March 10 message to its employees.

But Russian customs records reviewed by Reuters show that between March 11 and July 16, Gap’s franchisee in Moscow received 1,585 clothing shipments with a declared value of $5.2 million. More than three-quarters of the deliveries list the supplier as Gap Europe Ltd, a London-based unit of Gap Inc.

The Russian customs records are drawn from several commercial providers of trade data and go through Sept. 30. They provide details of Russian imports from customs forms, including suppliers, importers, product descriptions and declared values.

The Gap shipments included everything from “knitted children’s socks” and “children’s pajamas” to “textile blouses for women” and “textile shorts for men.”

Clothing, except for luxury items, generally doesn’t fall under the recent Western sanctions on Russia so as not to punish ordinary citizens. But the post-March 10 shipments appear to contradict Gap’s claim to its employees.

A Gap Inc spokesperson in San Francisco told Reuters in an email on Oct. 19 that “we stopped shipments to Russia as we announced in March and have not resumed.”

Reuters later provided Gap with Russian customs data showing the 1,585 shipments after March 10 to Gap Retail LLC, a Gap franchisee in Moscow. It is operated by Fiba Perakende Grubu, an Istanbul-based retailer that runs all the Gap stores in Russia, Turkey and Ukraine.

On Oct. 28, Gap acknowledged to Reuters that it had continued facilitating deliveries of clothes to Russia until April – a month after it told employees it had suspended all deliveries.

“Because orders are made many months in advance, our franchise partner collected its final order from our distribution center in April. Gap neither shipped nor sold any merchandise to our Russian franchise partner since their final order was processed,” the Gap spokesman said in response to questions posed by Reuters.

Gap didn’t respond to questions about exactly when the orders were placed, when they were fulfilled or why it didn’t cancel outstanding orders after its March 10 announcement.

Asked why the clothing shipments to Russia continued until July, a Fiba Perakende manager said in a statement, “These shipments were delayed due to longer transit times via Turkey, as well as additional handling time at Russian customs.”

But according to the Russian customs records reviewed by Reuters, the vast majority of the clothing shipments make no mention of Turkey as a transit point. Fiba didn’t respond to a question about the discrepancy. ‘SOME ITEMS ARE MISSING’

The Fiba Perakende statement added that “due to Gap Inc’s decision to indefinitely suspend delivery of Gap products to Russia, Fiba is in the process of winding down its Gap franchise business in Russia, upon depletion of any remaining on-hand stock in Russia.”

Along with its e-commerce website, gap.ru, Fiba Perakende said in its statement it had operated 23 stores in three major Russian cities.

Gap Europe disclosed $9.6 million in annual franchise sales for Russia in its last fiscal year, ending Jan. 30, 2021, down from $11.5 million the prior year, according to its annual report and financial statements. Gap Europe’s business has been struggling, and it closed dozens of its company-operated stores last year in the United Kingdom and Ireland. A Gap Europe director didn’t respond to a request for comment about the Russian shipments.

A woman who answered the telephone this week at a Gap store in central Moscow said it remained open. Asked about its clothing selection, she replied, “Yes, we have some choice. Of course, it depends what you are looking for. Some items are missing.”

Russian customs records show more than 1,200 shipments of Gap clothing to Russia between March 11 – the day after Gap Inc’s announcement that it was halting shipments – and June 21. In every case, the supplier was listed as Gap Europe with the Netherlands as the departure country and Russia as the destination – with no mention of Turkey as a transit point. In its most recent annual report, Gap Europe said it was changing its distribution center for its franchise business from the United Kingdom to the Netherlands.

Other shipments to Russia in June and July list the supplier as either “Ankara customs” or another Istanbul company that is linked to Fiba Perakende – suggesting the clothing may have passed through Turkey.

After July 16, the customs records show no shipments to Gap Retail in Moscow, indicating that the apparel flow to Russia had stopped.

Gap’s March statement that it had suspended deliveries to Russia also said it would donate $1 million worth of clothing to Ukrainian refugees. In its latest statement to Reuters, Gap said, “We stand in solidarity with the people of Ukraine.”

(Reporting by Siddharth Cavale in New York, Steve Stecklow in London and David Gauthier-Villars in Istanbul; Editing by Vanessa O’Connell and Chris Sanders)