Uber leveraged violent attacks against its drivers to pressure politicians

Violence boosted its margins, paving the way for a risky, law-evading expansion strategy. The ride-hailing app was flush with cash at the start of 2016, racing to expand globally. But Paris, Uber’s first international outpost, became the centre of a bloody battle over the company’s ambition. Aaron C. Davis, Rick Noack and Douglas MacMillan explore how a trove of new documents shows that in Uber’s push for global expansion, company officials saw clashes with taxi cab workers as a way to win public sympathy.