Martha Mendoza

Associated Press

Electric Bus Co. Suspends Production at Brand New Plant

December 6, 2024

Employees work in the battery assembly hall at the BMW Spartanburg plant in Greer, S.C. on Oct. 19, 2022.

U.S. Added 227,000 Jobs in November

December 6, 2024

Governor Tony Evers speaks during an announcement of Eli Lilly expanding in Bristol, Wis., Thursday, Dec. 5, 2024, as Lilly said it will expand a Kenosha County, Wis., factory it bought early this year.

Eli Lilly Invests $3B to Expand Wisconsin Factory

December 6, 2024

A man works at a manufacturer of Integrated Chip encapsulation in Nantong in eastern China's Jiangsu province on Friday, Sept. 16, 2022.

China's Ban on Key High-Tech Materials Could Have Broad Impact on Industries, Economy

December 6, 2024

Michael Williams sits for a portrait in his South Side Chicago home Tuesday, July 27, 2021. Williams was behind bars for nearly a year before a judge dismissed the murder case against him in July at the request of prosecutors, who said they had insufficient evidence.

How AI-Powered Tech Landed Man in Jail with Scant Evidence

An investigation identified serious flaws in using ShotSpotter evidence in court.

August 19, 2021

In this Friday, May 8, 2020 file photo, a respiratory therapist pulls on a second mask over her N95 mask before adding a face shield as she gets ready to go into a patient's room in the COVID-19 Intensive Care Unit at a hospital in Seattle. Medical providers may soon return to using one medical N95 mask per patient, a practice that was suspended during the pandemic due to deadly supply shortages.

FDA: N95 Masks Plentiful, Do Not Reuse

Critical shortages prompted companies to ration, clean and reuse disposable equipment.

April 23, 2021

Volunteers Keshia Link, left, and Dan Peterson unload boxes of donated gloves and alcohol wipes from a car at a drive-up donation site for medical supplies at the University of Washington to help fight the coronavirus outbreak Tuesday, March 24, 2020, in Seattle.

Key Medical Glove Factories Cut Staff 50%

The Malaysian government ordered factories to halt all manufacturing, but essential companies can reopen with half the workforce.

March 25, 2020

In this March 12, 2020, file photo, health care personnel test a person in the passenger seat of a car for coronavirus at a Kaiser Permanente medical center parking lot in San Francisco. The Associated Press has found that the critical shortage of testing swabs, protective masks, surgical gowns and hand sanitizer can be tied to a sudden drop in imports of medical supplies.

Imports of Medical Supplies Plummet

The decline in shipments started in mid-February after the spiraling coronavirus outbreak in China led the country to shutter factories and disrupted ports.

March 23, 2020

I Stock 458731959

Gloves Made in Internment Camp

The company halted shipments after learning of labor abuse.

March 3, 2020

A tiffin carrier belonging to a worker lies amid charred remains after a fire broke out at Nandan Denim, one of the world's largest denim suppliers, in Ahmedabad, India.

Indian Factory Had Single Door Reached by Ladder

The factory supplies jeans, denim and other garments to more than 20 global brands.

February 12, 2020

In this Dec. 5, 2018, file photo, two layers of barbed wire fencing ring the 'Hotan City apparel employment training base' where Hetian Taida Apparel Co. has a factory in Hotan in western China's Xinjiang region. The Trump Administration is blocking shipments from Chinese company Hetian Taida Apparel, which makes baby pajamas sold at Costco warehouses, after the foreign manufacturer was accused of forcing ethnic minorities locked in an internment camp to sew clothes against their will.

Costco Pajamas Used Forced Labor

The foreign manufacturer was accused of forcing ethnic minorities locked in an internment camp to sew clothes against their will.

October 8, 2019

Pages from a report released from the Washington-based Worker Rights Consortium, photographed in Washington, Thursday, August 15, 2019. The report from labor rights groups says women sewing blue jeans for Levi’s, Wrangler, Lee and The Children’s Place in several African factories faced sexual harassment and gender-based violence and some were coerced into having sex with supervisors.

Levi's, Wrangler Seamstresses Abused

When the workers objected, they faced discrimination and retaliation, the report says.

August 15, 2019

In this file image from undated video footage run by China's CCTV via AP Video, Muslim trainees work in a garment factory at the Hotan Vocational Education and Training Center in Hotan, Xinjiang, northwest China. A U.S. company that stocks college bookstores with t-shirts and other team apparel cut ties Wednesday, Jan. 9, 2019, with a Chinese company that drew workers from an internment camp holding targeted members of ethnic minority groups.

U.S. Apparel Co. Cuts Off Forced Labor

Universities stocking Badger clothing began pulling items from their shelves and websites after the report appeared in December.

January 10, 2019

In this Wednesday, Dec. 5, 2018, photo, two layers of barbed wire fencing ring the 'Hotan City apparel employment training base' where Hetian Taida has a factory in Hotan in western China's Xinjiang region. This is one of a growing number of internment camps in the Xinjiang region, where by some estimates 1 million Muslims are detained, forced to give up their language and their religion and subject to political indoctrination. Now, the Chinese government is also forcing some detainees to work in manufacturing and food industries. Some of them are within the internment camps; others are privately owned, state-subsidized factories where detainees are sent once they are released.

U.S. Reviews Claim of Slave-Produced Imports

The AP tracked shipments from a factory in an interment camp in China's far western Xinjiang region to Badger Sportswear in North Carolina.

December 19, 2018

In this file image from undated video footage run by China's CCTV via AP Video, Muslim trainees work in a garment factory at the Hotan Vocational Education and Training Center in Hotan, Xinjiang, northwest China. China's state broadcaster CCTV aired the report Tuesday, Oct. 16, 2018, on the so-called vocational education and training center, with Muslim trainees telling the camera how they have been saved from dangerous and poor lives and how grateful they are to the authorities.

Sportswear Made in Internment Camp

It can be difficult to stop products made with forced labor from getting into the global supply chain, even though such imports are illegal in the U.S.

December 18, 2018

Companies Warned Against North Korea Labor

North Korean worker pay supports the country's programs of weapons of mass destruction and ballistic missiles.

July 30, 2018

In this Thursday, June 28, 2018, photo, a Bangladeshi laborer processes leather at a factory on the banks of the Daleshwari River in Savar, Bangladesh. Bangladesh tanneries prepping leather for shoes, belts, wallets and purses are dumping toxic chemicals into the Daleshwari river at a new industrial complex more than a year after the government shut them down for poisoning a different river and using child labor.

Toxic Tanneries Pollute New Site

They polluted a new site about a year after the government shut them down for poisoning a different river and using child labor.

July 7, 2018

North Korean workers gather after lunch at the Hong Chao Zhi Yi garment factory in Hunchun in northeastern China. At a time when North Korea faces sanctions on many exports, it sends of tens of thousands of workers worldwide bringing in revenue estimated at anywhere from $200 million to $500 million. That could account for a sizable portion of North Korea’s nuclear weapons and missile programs.

Customs Blocks North Korean Imports

The North Korean workers found in Chinese factories aren't allowed to leave, and receive only a fraction of their pay — most goes straight to the North Korean state.

October 6, 2017

$In this Aug. 31, 2017, photo, North Korean workers walk in a group to dormitories in the compound of the seafood processing factory Hunchun Pagoda in the city of Hunchun in northeastern China's Jilin province. Roughly 3,000 North Koreans are believed to work in Hunchun, a far northeast Chinese industrial hub just a few miles from the borders of both North Korea and Russia. The workers are paid a fraction of their salaries, while the rest - as much as 70 percent - is taken by North Korea’s government.$

Customs Vows to Block N. Korean-Made Seafood

American consumers buying seafood labeled "Caught in the USA, Processed in China" may inadvertently be subsidizing the government of Kim Jong Un as it builds nuclear weapons.

October 6, 2017