On Día de los Muertos, Mexicans remember the 1,700 doctors, health workers dead from Covid
The Associated Press

MEXICO CITY —The altar shows a diminutive figure of a skeleton in a face mask and medical cap, with a hand on a bedridden patient. At its side is the sort of skull made of sugar common on Day of the Dead altars. And behind is the photo of a white-haired 64-year-old man in glasses smiling at the camera: the late Dr. Jose Luis Linares.

© Provided by NBC News

Linares is one of more than 1,700 Mexican health workers officially known to have died of COVID-19 who are being honored with three days of national mourning on these Days of the Dead.

Linares attended to patients at a private clinic in a poor neighborhood in the southern part of the city, usually charging about 30 pesos (roughly $1.50) a consultation. Because he didn’t work at an official COVID-19 center, his family doesn’t qualify for the assistance the government gives to medical personnel stricken by the disease, his widow said

“I told him, ‘Luis, don’t go to work.’ But he told me, ‘Then who is going to see those poor people,’” said his widow, Dr. María del Rosario Martínez. She said he had taken precautions against the disease because of lungs damaged by an earlier illness.

In addition to the usual marigolds and paper cutouts for Day of the Dead altars, hers this year includes little skeleton figures shown doing consultations or surgeries in honor of colleagues who have died.

It’s echoed in many parts of a country that as of September, according to Amnesty International, had lost more medical professionals to the coronavirus than any other nation.

They include people like nurse Jose Valencia, and Dr. Samuel Silva Montenegro of Mexico City, whose images rest atop altars in the homes of loved ones in Mexico City,

Martínez's altar is in a living room beside a room in their apartment where she and her husband gave consultations. Martínez, who also fell ill but recovered, now sees patients only online or by phone.

Linares died May 25 after being hospitalized at a peak of infections in Mexico City. Martínez lost consciousness at the news, but when she came to, she found her only son and her sister were hugging her. “Don’t touch me, don’t touch me!” she yelled, fearing they too would be infected.

At the peak of her own illness, she trekked from saturated hospital to overflowing clinic, looking for help.

Martínez, 59, said she now feels better, and at peace, though not resigned to the loss of her husband of 36 years, who she first met as a girl selling gum outside a movie theater to help support her eight brothers and sisters.

“I feel strange,” she said. “But I owe it to the patients and they are going to help me get through this.” She said, though, that she expects to work fewer hours.

“I’m afraid because we don’t know how much immunity you’re doing to have, how long it will work,” she said. “The illness is very hard, very cruel. ... All over the world, we are going to have a very sad story to tell.”

Mexico has reported more than 924,000 confirmed coronavirus infections and nearly 140.000 deaths listed as confirmed or probable, though experts say the actual numbers are likely significantly higher.

Still Martinez has found comfort in Mexico’s Day of the Dead practices.

“According to the traditions and beliefs, he is going to come here, accompany us, and he is going to be happy that I am thinking of him in this moment.”

Corpses lie unclaimed on Day of the Dead in violent Mexican state

By Josue Gonzalez, Daina Beth Solomon


VIDEO https://www.reuters.com/video/?videoId=OVD2QR48X&jwsource=em

CHILPANCINGO, Mexico (Reuters) - For Ben Yehuda Martinez, head of forensic services in the violence-torn Mexican state of Guerrero, there is more to celebrating Day of the Dead than arranging a colorful altar with flowers and photos.

It means trying to identify 428 bodies currently unclaimed at the state’s forensic cemetery, most of them victims of crime.

“Trying to find out their identities ... that’s the greatest recognition we can get on the Day of the Dead,” Martinez said at one of Mexico’s newest facilities for unidentified bodies.

The latest official count of people listed as disappeared reached 73,000 this year. Most are believed to be victims of drug cartel turf wars, casting a shadow over the typically festive Nov. 1-2 Day of the Dead holiday.

For families who spend months or years searching for vanished relatives, the possibility of death is often hard to accept, said Arturo Gerardo Cervantes, a forensic adviser for the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC).

“They never lose hope of finding their loved ones alive,” he said.

Still, once there is proof, it can bring closure.

For one family looking for a missing young woman, that proof came from her feet. Relatives fondly recalled how she would put up her feet on the coffee table while watching television.

About 60%-70% of the dead examined by Guerrero’s forensic team are shooting victims. Others died in incidents ranging from natural disasters to car crashes. Workers are at pains to treat them with dignity.

On Friday, a priest led a ceremony to commemorate their lives alongside a wreath of golden marigolds, the traditional Day of the Dead flower, before sprinkling holy water upon numbered compartments stacked four rows high.

The scene was a contrast to those playing out at ordinary cemeteries around Mexico, where families pay tribute to deceased relatives with festive picnics and elaborate decorations.

The cemetery opened in 2017 to relieve overcrowding at forensic facilities caused by record levels of violence.

With ICRC assistance, officials designed the site to accommodate bodies individually, rather than putting several into one grave. The facility holds up to 1,120 in individual tombs.

Each has a plaque with a person’s case number, so families can easily retrieve bodies once they are identified.

That requires specialists in matching distinguishing features such as teeth, fingerprints, birthmarks and DNA. Such people are in short supply.

“Here the violence truly, like everywhere else, hasn’t slowed down ... bodies arrive every day,” Martinez said. “This is a never-ending story.”

Reporting by Daina Beth Solomon in Mexico City and Josue Gonzalez in Chilpancingo; Editing by Lisa Shumaker

In Frida Kahlo's old home, Day of the Dead 'offering' honors artists felled by pandemics

MEXICO CITY (Reuters) - A traditional Day of the Dead “offering” in Frida Kahlo’s iconic home in Mexico City has taken on a wider artistic homage, with an exhibition helped by French designer Jean Paul Gaultier also remembering artists who have died in past pandemics.

Mexico’s Day of the Dead festival blends Catholic rituals with the pre-Hispanic belief that the dead return once a year from the underworld, and seeks to celebrate the continuity of life.

Traditionally, Mexicans build Day of the Dead altars in their homes and outside, where they place pictures of the dead and items they enjoyed in life.



In Kahlo’s “Blue House,” which is now a museum, organizers put together an offering titled “The Restored Table: Memory and Reencounter,” in collaboration with Gaultier, who was a huge fan of the iconic Mexican artist. The offering included pictures of famed artists who died in previous pandemics, including Italian painter Tiziano, who passed away in 1576 when the plague ravaged Venice, and Austria’s Gustav Klimt, who died from the Spanish flu in 1918.

“It’s an interesting experience,” said Mariyah Efimova, a Russian tourist in the Mexican capital.

The offering included an homage to Mexican artist Manuel Felguérez, who died from COVID-19, and marigolds, known in Mexico as “the flower of the dead” for a scent believed to be strong and sweet enough to attract souls and draw them back.

Edna Romero, a mask-wearing visitor, said it was important for her family to learn about Kahlo and Mexican traditions such as Day of the Dead despite the tough times during the coronavirus pandemic.

“It’s very interesting and very cool,” said Romero. “I hope it will be a respite.”

Spanish families mark Day of the Dead separately amid COVID-19 fears

By Guillermo Martinez

MADRID (Reuters) - Spanish families who normally honour their dead relatives by visiting cemeteries on the Day of the Dead are spacing out their visits this year as a second wave of coronavirus sweeps the country.

Authorities have advised families to spend only 30 minutes at graveyards and not to go in large groups to mark the event, which is linked to the Catholic holidays of All Saints’ Day and All Souls’ Day at the start of November.

“Our family is coming separately, two or three days apart. We are the last to visit,” said Francisco Gonzalez, 81, who visited the Almudena cemetery in Madrid with his wife.

Flower sellers said many people are staying away, meaning fewer sales of bouquets to place at graves.

Yolanda Gomez, a florist who has her stall at the entrance to Almudena, said sales of flowers had fallen by 50% this year.

Spain imposed a six-month state of emergency last week enabling it to impose measures aimed at trying to reduce the soaring rate of coronavirus infections, including night curfews.

Vatican breaks silence, explains pope's civil union comments

ROME — The Vatican says Pope Francis’ comments on gay civil unions were taken out of context in a documentary that spliced together parts of an old interview, but still confirmed Francis’ belief that gay couples should enjoy legal protections.

© Provided by NBC News

The Vatican secretariat of state issued guidance to ambassadors to explain the uproar that Francis’ comments created following the Oct. 21 premiere of the film “Francesco,” at the Rome Film Festival. The Vatican nuncio to Mexico, Archbishop Franco Coppola, posted the unsigned guidance on his Facebook page Sunday.

In it, the Vatican confirmed that Francis was referring to his position in 2010 when he was archbishop of Buenos Aires and strongly opposed moves to allow same-sex marriage. Instead, he favored extending legal protections to gay couples under what is understood in Argentina as a civil union law.

While Francis was known to have taken that position privately, he had never articulated his support while as pope. As a result, the comments made headlines, primarily because the Vatican’s doctrine office in 2003 issued a document prohibiting such endorsement. The document, signed by Francis’ predecessor as pope, says the church’s support for gay people “cannot lead in any way to approval of homosexual behavior or to legal recognition of homosexual unions.”

The recent uproar gained even more attention because it turned out director Evgeny Afineevsky misled journalists by claiming Francis had made the comments to him in a new interview. A week before the premiere, when he was asked about the civil union comments, Afineevsky told The Associated Press that he had two on-camera interviews with the pope. In comments to journalists after the premiere, he claimed that the civil union footage came from an interview with the pope with a translator present.

It turned out, Francis’ comments were apparently taken from a May 2019 interview with Mexican broadcaster Televisa that were never broadcast. The Vatican hasn’t confirmed or denied reports by sources in Mexico that the Vatican cut the quote from the footage it provided to Televisa after the interview, which was filmed with Vatican cameras.

Afineevsky apparently was given access to the original, uncut footage in the Vatican archives.

The guidance issued by the secretariat of state doesn’t address the issue of the cut quote or that it came from the Televisa interview. It says only that it was from a 2019 interview and that the comments used in the documentary spliced together parts of two different responses in a way that removed crucial context.

“More than a year ago, during an interview, Pope Francis answered two different questions at two different times that, in the aforementioned documentary, were edited and published as a single answer without proper contextualization, which has led to confusion,” said the guidance posted by Coppola.

In the film, Afineevsky recounts the story of Andrea Rubera, a married gay Catholic who wrote Francis asking for his advice about bringing into the church his three young children with his husband.

It was an anguished question, given that the Catholic Church teaches that gay people must be treated with dignity and respect but that homosexual acts are “intrinsically disordered.” The church also holds that marriage is an indissoluble union between man and woman, and as a result, gay marriage is unacceptable.

In the end, Rubera recounts how Francis urged him to approach his parish transparently and bring the children up in the faith, which he did. After the anecdote ends, the film cuts to Francis’ comments from the Televisa interview.

“Homosexual people have the right to be in a family. They are children of God,” Francis said. “You can’t kick someone out of a family, nor make their life miserable for this. What we have to have is a civil union law; that way they are legally covered.”

Francis’ comments about gays having the right to be in a family referred to parents with gay children, and the need for them to not kick their children out or discriminate against them, the Vatican guidance said.

Francis was not endorsing the right of gay couples to adopt children, even though the placement of the quote right after Rubera told his story made it seem that Francis was.

The pope’s comments about gay civil unions came from a different part of the Televisa interview and included several caveats that were not included in the film.

In the Televisa interview, Francis made clear he was explaining his position about the unique case in Buenos Aires 10 years ago, as opposed to Rubera’s situation or gay marriage as a whole.

In the Televisa interview, Francis also insisted that he always maintained Catholic doctrine and said there was an “incongruity” for the Catholic Church as far as “homosexual marriage” is concerned.

The documentary eliminated that context.

The Televisa footage is available online, and includes an awkward cut right after Francis spoke about the “incongruity” of homosexual marriage. Presumably, that is where he segued into his position as archbishop in favoring extending legal protections to gay couples.

Neither the Vatican nor Afineevsky have responded to repeated questions about the cut quote or its origin.

The Vatican guidance insists that Francis wasn’t contradicting church doctrine. But it doesn’t explain how his support for extending Argentine legal protections to gay couples in 2010 could be squared with the 2003 document from the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, which says “the principles of respect and non-discrimination cannot be invoked to support legal recognition of homosexual unions.”

RIP

Robert Fisk, veteran foreign correspondent, dies at 74

WRITING TILL THE END 

BEIRUT — Veteran British journalist Robert Fisk, one of the best-known Middle East correspondents who spent his career reporting from the troubled region and won accolades for challenging mainstream narratives has died after a short illness, his employer said Monday. He was 74.

© Provided by The Canadian Press

Fisk, whose reporting often sparked controversy, died Sunday at a hospital in Dublin, shortly after he was taken there after falling ill at his home in the Irish capital. The London Independent, where he had worked since 1989, described him as the most celebrated journalist of his era.

“Fearless, uncompromising, determined and utterly committed to uncovering the truth and reality at all costs, Robert Fisk was the greatest journalist of his generation,” said Christian Broughton, managing director of the newspaper.

”The fire he lit at The Independent will burn on,” he said.

Born in Kent, in the United Kingdom, Fisk began his career on Fleet Street at the Sunday Express. He went on to work for The Times, and was based in Northern Ireland, Portugal and the Middle East. He moved to Beirut in 1976, a year after the country’s civil war broke out. Until his death, he maintained an apartment along the Lebanese capital’s famed Mediterranean corniche.

From his base in Beirut, Fisk travelled across the Mideast and beyond, covering almost every big story in the region, including the Iran-Iraq war, the Arab-Israeli conflict, the war in Algeria, the conflict in Afghanistan, Saddam Hussein’s invasion of Kuwait, the U.S. invasion and occupation of Iraq, the Arab Spring and Syria's civil war. His reporting earned him awards, but also invited controversy, particularly his coverage of the Syria conflict.

A fearless, bespectacled and cheerful personality bristling with energy, Fisk was often the first reporter to arrive at the scene of a story. He shunned email, smart phones and social media, and strongly believed in the power of street reporting.

In 1982, he was one of the first journalists at the Sabra and Shatila camp in Beirut, where Israeli-backed Christian militiamen slaughtered hundreds of Palestinian refugees. Earlier that year, he was also the first foreign journalist to report on the scale of the Hama massacre in 1982, when then-Syrian President Hafez Assad launched a withering assault on the rebellious city in central Syria, levelling entire neighbourhoods and killing thousands in one of the most notorious massacres in the modern Middle East.

Fisk was in love with Beirut, the city he called home, sticking with it during the most difficult days of the 1975-90 civil war when foreign journalists fell victim to kidnappers. Back then, he used the offices of The Associated Press to file his stories during the war, where colleagues called him “the Fisk,” or “Fisky.”

In his book chronicling the war, Pity the Nation, he describes filing his dispatches by furiously punching a telex tape at the bureau, which he described as “a place of dirty white walls and heavy battleship-grey metal desks with glass tops and iron typewriters” and a “massive, evil-tempered generator” on the balcony.

“So sad to lose a true friend and a great journalist. The Temple of truth is gone,” said Marwan Chukri, director of the Foreign Press Center at the Information Ministry in Beirut.

Fisk gained particular fame and popularity in the region for his opposition to the Iraq war - challenging the official U.S. government narrative of weapons of mass destruction as it laid the groundwork for the 2003 invasion — and disputing U.S. and Israeli policies.

He was one of the few journalists who interviewed Osama bin Laden several times. After the Sept. 11, 2011 attacks and the subsequent U.S. invasion of Iraq, he travelled to the Pakistan-Afghan border, where he was attacked by a group of Afghan refugees.

He later wrote about the incident from the refugees’ perspective, describing his beating by refugees as a “symbol of the hatred and fury of this filthy war.”

“I realized – there were all the Afghan men and boys who had attacked me who should never have done so but whose brutality was entirely the product of others, of us — of we who had armed their struggle against the Russians and ignored their pain and laughed at their civil war,” he wrote.

His most controversial reporting, however, was on the conflict in Syria in the past decade. Fisk, who was often allowed access to government-held areas when other journalists were banished, was accused of siding with the government of President Bashar Assad and whitewashing crimes committed by Syrian security forces.

In 2018, he cast doubt on whether a poison gas attack blamed on the government had taken place in the Damascus suburb of Douma in 2018. The global chemical weapons watchdog later said it found “reasonable grounds” that chlorine was used as a weapon.

His deep attachment to Lebanon and its people consistently came through his writing. Following the massive explosion that tore through Beirut port on Aug. 4 and destroyed large parts of the city, he wrote a scathing article that summed up the country’s curse and corrupt political class.

“So here is one of the most educated nations in the region with the most talented and courageous — and generous and kindliest — of peoples, blessed by snows and mountains and Roman ruins and the finest food and the greatest intellect and a history of millennia. And yet it cannot run its currency, supply its electric power, cure its sick or protect its people,” Fisk wrote.

Fisk wrote several books, including “Pity the Nation: Lebanon at War” and “The Great War for Civilisation: The Conquest of the Middle East."

He is survived by his wife, Nelofer Pazira, a filmmaker and human rights activist.

Zeina Karam, The Associated Press


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Vladimir Marugov, Russian ‘Sausage King,’ slain by crossbow in sauna
Josh K. Elliott 

© Alexander Marugov/Facebook 

Russian oligarch Vladimir Marugov is shown in this 2015 file photo.

Vladimir Marugov, a Russian oligarch known as the "Sausage King," was killed in the sauna beside his home outside Moscow on Monday, according to police.

The incident reportedly happened at Marugov's estate near Istra, an upscale suburb west of Moscow.

Authorities say two intruders broke into the bathhouse and caught him in the sauna with a woman. The intruders tied the two of them up, demanded money and eventually killed Marugov with a crossbow, according to the Investigative Committee, Russia's equivalent of the FBI.

Marugov's partner managed to escape through a window and ran to a neighbour's home to call police.

Police found the victim, 54, dead in the sauna with a crossbow bolt in him.

Investigators recovered a suspected getaway car and the crossbow in a nearby village. One suspect has been arrested, RT reports.

Authorities did not identify the victim but he has been named as Marugov in various Russian media reports. REN TV described him as the owner of Ozyorsky Sausages and the "Meat Empire" sausage factories.

Read more: Model and Instagram ‘Catwoman’ jailed for series of masked burglaries

The wealthy Marugov family has a well-documented history of turmoil and tragedy. Vladimir Marugov's son, Alexander, died in a motorcycle accident last year at the age of 25.

Marugov had also been locked in a legal battle with his ex-wife, Tayana Marugova, over the terms of their divorce, which happened five years ago.

The investigation into his death is ongoing

Firms with more robots also have more workers overall, Statistics Canada study says

OTTAWA — Statistics Canada says domestic firms that invested in robots since the late 1990s have also expanded their human workforces, suggesting a less than "apocalyptic" result for workers overall.

© Provided by The Canadian Press

The findings released today show that over two decades, firms that invested in automation had workforces 15 per cent larger relative to other companies in the same industry.

Overall increases were from bumps in high-skilled jobs, such as programmers, that require university degrees, and low-skilled workers with high-school diplomas or less.

Those in the middle, such as trades workers, were more likely to not be replaced once a robot arrived.

Firms that invested in robots were also likely to cut the number of managers, the analysis says, giving workers more control over decisions and performance incentives.

The studies released today are based on administrative data from companies that added robots and automation to their activities between 1996 and 2017.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Nov. 2, 2020.

The Canadian Press

Court challenge to Quebec's secularism law, Bill 21, opens in Montreal
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Court challenge to Quebec's secularism law, Bill 21, opens in Montreal

MONTREAL — Ichrak Nourel Hak, a Quebec teacher who wears a hijab, opened the court challenge to the province's secularism law Monday, testifying that the legislation makes her feel excluded from society.

© Provided by The Canadian Press

Nourel Hak was a student in June 2019 when Quebec adopted Bill 21, the law banning public sector workers in positions of authority -- including teachers, police officers and judges -- from wearing religious symbols on the job.

Monday's legal proceedings combined four separate lawsuits challenging Bill 21 into one trial, which is expected to last up to six weeks before Superior Court Justice Marc-Andre Blanchard.

Nourel Hak said she started wearing the hijab at the age of 21 after reflecting on her religion. She told the court numerous times it was her choice to wear the Islamic head scarf and no one forced her to do it.

When asked what her father thought when she made her decision, the teacher told the court, "he didn't feel strongly one way or another." She said her hijab is a part of who she is, and it is unimaginable for her to remove it during teaching hours.

She testified that she received her teaching degree in September and was hired by a private school that isn't subject to Bill 21. She said wearing the Islamic head scarf is also a way for her to fight stereotypes against Muslim women. "I want to show that there are women who are fulfilled, who want to give back to society," she told the court.

Quebec Premier Francois Legault has called Bill 21 "moderate" and "balanced" and said it is supported by the majority of Quebecers.

He has said the law doesn't prevent people from practising their religion and that it is a way for the Quebec nation to enshrine its deeply held secularist values.

Earlier on Monday, a few dozen people protested outside the Montreal courthouse against Bill 21. Many protesters said they were part of the McGill Radical Law Students’ Association.

Fanny Caire, a spokesperson for the group, said Bill 21 "will prevent people from holding certain jobs based on the way they dress, and it will disproportionately discriminate against Muslim women and people of colour."

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Nov. 2, 2020.

Stephanie Marin, The Canadian Press

In Brazil, a parrot puppeteer’s death stirs the nation

RIO DE JANEIRO — In a time of so much loss, it is rare for an individual death to stir a country. And it is extraordinary for national grief to be triggered by the passing of a puppet. 

© Provided by The Canadian Press

But so it was in Brazil on Monday, as an outpouring of emotion followed news that the puppeteer behind Louro José – a 2-foot tall parrot that is a fixture on the country’s most popular morning show – had died.

Puppeteer Tom Veiga suffered a stroke caused by an aneurysm at his home in Rio de Janeiro, at age 47. For more than two decades, his green-and-yellow bird was comic relief on the program “Mais Voce,” somewhere between sidekick and co-host to Ana Maria Braga. The program was a welcome source of levity in a country accustomed to news of violence, inequality, plus political and economic turbulence.

“I woke up today and kept thinking how I was going to manage to get here and say ‘Good morning’ to you, because it hurts a lot,” Braga, 71, told viewers, barely holding herself together while standing in front of a drawing of Louro José with a halo. “It’s really like a mom who loses a son, a companion.”

Her homage reflects in part why “Mais Voce” became so popular. While featuring standard morning show fare – an upbeat mix of recipes, celebrities and the like – Braga didn’t shy from disclosing personal struggles, according to Mauricio Stycer, a prominent television critic and columnist. And Louro José complemented her with his carefree mocking and sarcastic jokes.

“The commotion it’s causing is because it’s a doll that, together with a person, came into your home Monday to Friday for two decades,” Stycer said. “As strange as it may seem, it became natural. The character became part of people’s lives.

Louro José often wore costumes, and even travelled. Veiga had previously described his character as “a troublemaker, grumpy, a flirt, a charmer.

The program drew 13 million daily viewers on average in 2020, the most in Brazil for its time slot, according to Globo, the channel that airs it. Brazilians wrote condolence messages on social media; some even posted fan art. Celebrities including singers Ivete Sangalo and Luan Santana, as well as YouTube influencer Felipe Neto, shared their sorrow with their tens of millions of followers.

“Louro José was one of the greatest creations in the history of Brazilian television,” wrote Neto, who TIME magazine recently named one of the world’s 100 most influential people.

Louro José was initially conceived of to entertain a young audience — and that he did — but his jokes were hardly infantile, according to Lígia Mesquita, a former newspaper columnist focused on television and now a producer herself. The parrot's wit and double entendres went right over kids' heads, she said.

“That puppet-character was the representation on TV ... of that Brazilian characteristic to laugh at oneself even in the worst moments,” Mesquita added.

Also unique about Lauro José was how adults interacted with the puppet as though it were sentient. That reflects the “genius and creativity of Tom Veiga," J.B. Oliveira, who previously directed “Mais Voce” at Globo, said in a statement to The Associated Press.

“The colorful little animal gained humanity and was seen by all, viewers and guests, as a real person," Oliveira said.

On Monday's broadcast, “Mais Voce” shared tear-filled tributes to Veiga from about two dozen of his friends and colleagues at the network. People on set dressed all in black, with photos of Veiga upon their chests. Globo said the day's ratings were the highest in 20 years.

Globo didn't immediately respond to a request for comment about whether it plans to find a new actor to bring Louro José to life.

The network shared a video with some of Louro José's many appearances, including one in which he fainted upon receiving a kiss from model Gisele Bünchen. In another, he dressed up like Michael Jackson, dancing on the countertop as Braga bopped along beside him.

“Thank you for everything Louro José, Tom Veiga,” one Twitter user identifying as Lia Carioca said. “Your work was happy, inspiring, cute and cheered the mornings of many Brazilians who were down.”

David Biller, The Associated Press

CRIMINAL CAPITALI$M
Fiat Chrysler faces up to $840 million in potential new U.S. regulatory costs
By David Shepardson

© Reuters/Rebecca Cook FILE PHOTO: 

A Fiat Chrysler Automobiles sign at the U.S. headquarters in Auburn Hills, Michigan

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Fiat Chrysler Automobiles NV (FCA) disclosed it could face costs of up to 722 million euros ($840 million) to resolve a Justice Department investigation into excess diesel emissions and as a result of higher fuel economy penalties.

The Italian-American company said the impact of a U.S. appeals court ruling in August overturning the Trump administration's July 2019 rule that suspended a National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) regulation more than doubling penalties for automakers failing to meet fuel efficiency requirements could be significant.

FCA in a securities filing said the amounts "accrued could be up to 500 million euros ($581 million) depending on, among other things, our ability to implement future product actions or other actions to modify the utilization of credits."

The automaker declined to comment Monday.

In October 2019, FCA said it incurred a $79 million U.S. civil penalty for failing to meet 2017 fuel economy requirements after paying $77.3 million for 2016 requirements.

FCA's filing said it is uncertain if "NHTSA will appeal the ruling" and unclear if the ruling will be applied retrospectively to the 2019 model year.

If the higher rate were applied retrospectively, Fiat Chrysler "may need to accrue additional amounts due to increased CAFE penalties and additional amounts owed under certain agreements for the purchase of regulatory emissions credits."

Separately, FCA recognized a 222 million euro ($258 million) provision "to settle matters under investigation by the U.S. Department of Justice primarily related to criminal investigations associated with U.S. diesel emissions matters."

FCA in January 2019 agreed to an $800 million settlement to resolve claims from the U.S. Justice Department, California Air Resources Board and owners that it used illegal software that produced false results on diesel-emissions tests.

FCA said settlement talks remain ongoing and it is not clear if it will reach agreement with the Justice Department.

FCA separately agreed in September to pay $9.5 million to settle allegations it misled investors over its compliance with emissions regulations.Volkswagen AG in 2017 as part of its diesel emissions Justice Department settlement pleaded guilty to fraud, obstruction of justice and falsifying statements.

(Reporting by David Shepardson; Editing by Andrea Ricci)

Iamgold suspends activity at Quebec underground gold mine after 'seismic event

© Provided by The Canadian Press

TORONTO — Iamgold Corp. says it has shut down operations at its Westwood underground gold mine in southern Quebec following a "seismic event" on Friday afternoon.

The Toronto-based company says all employees were safely brought to the surface after the event which occurred at about 2:30 p.m. ET.

The company adjusted the way it operates the mine after reporting increased seismic activity there in late 2018. Gold production for 2019 fell 29 per cent to 91,000 ounces due to lower throughput and ore grades.

Modified production guidance for Westwood based on a life of mine plan led to the company recognizing an impairment charge of $395 million in 2019.

The mine, which began commercial production in July 2014, was suspended from March 25 to April 15 this year due to COVID-19 lockdowns in Quebec.

Iamgold says it will provide an update on the mine's status when it announces third-quarter results after markets close on Wednesday.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Nov. 2, 2020.

Companies in this story: (TSX:IMG)

Millennials are using dating apps to reach voters in swing states

When Ben Weyhrauch, a 29-year-old software engineer in the Bay Area got a text message from a friend about using the popular dating app Hinge to get out the vote, he quickly downloaded it and set up a profile.

© Shutterstock

Weyhrauch set his location to a city in Pennsylvania, a battleground state where he is knowledgeable about the voting rules and regulations because he has been volunteering with a voter assistance hotline in the area. Weyhrauch, who said he used photos of himself with animals in a bid to motivate people to connect with him, said that through "Hinge-banking" — a spin on phone banking as a form of political campaigning to encourage people to vote — he has had dozens of conversations in recent days with locals about their voting plans.


Weyhrauch heard about the idea through an Instagram post from last week by 30-year-old Molly Kawahata, a friend of a friend of a friend. In the post, Kawahata encouraged people to change their location on Hinge to suburbs of major cities in battleground states like Pennsylvania, Wisconsin, North Carolina, Michigan, Arizona and Texas.

Kawahata started using Hinge for this kind of voter outreach because users can easily set their location, down to the neighborhood or county with the free version of the app regardless of where they are physically located, allowing far away people to target areas where the Presidential race is close. On Hinge, matches are surfaced to users based on their stated location and other preferences. Bumble and Tinder both set a user's location based on their phone's GPS and charge a premium to change to a different location.

Once matched with users in those locations, Kawahata directed people to ask if they've decided on a candidate, if they've already voted or if they have a plan for how they'll vote. Her goal is to persuade undecided voters to pick Democratic candidate Joe Biden, but she respects if users are supportive of President Donald Trump. (Kawahata has no association with the Biden campaign or with Hinge, but she previously worked on Hillary Clinton's campaign and served in the Obama White House.)

"It is really hard to reach voters in battleground states, especially during a pandemic. If you can get ahold of someone who is undecided and is willing to talk to you, that's a gigantic deal," Kawahata told CNN Business. "This is a way for us to reach these voters in another way and reach them where they are."

Kawahata calls the movement "#DateSaveAmerica," and she's noticed users started using other dating platforms, including Tinder and Grindr, to get people to the polls. While it's hard to quantify the scope of the effort, Kawahata estimates that hundreds of other people have joined in, based on the number of Instagram direct messages and tags she's receiving. A WhatsApp group dedicated to the push has over 50 members, and influencers, such as pro skier Caroline Gleich, have shared the effort with their sizable followings on Instagram. The Hinge-bankers who spoke with CNN Business have spoken to dozens of people on dating apps in recent days, ranging from a handful to upwards of 50.

Like other dating apps over the years, Hinge has used its brand to encourage civic engagement. The company — whose app made headlines when 2020 Democratic candidate Pete Buttigieg revealed he met his now-husband on Hinge — partnered with nonprofit organization Rock the Vote last year to encourage voter turnout.

But it is unclear if it embraces this specific use case.

"At Hinge, our goal is to get our users off the app and into a meaningful relationship. All Hinge users have the ability to share their political views on their profile, and we encourage everyone to discuss what matters most to them when making a connection. To ensure Hinge remains a great and respectful place to date, we will continue to monitor any misuse of our platform according to our terms of service," a Hinge spokesperson told CNN Business when asked about the effort.

Hinge's terms of service states that users agree to not share content that relates to "commercial activities" including "sales, competitions, promotions and advertising, solicitation for services."

It isn't the first time people have turned to dating apps to encourage voter turnout, but the disparity between casual conversation and campaigning has proven, at times, to be a fine line. A 2018 story from The Washington Post focused on the use of dating app Tinder to get out the vote in the lead up to the midterm elections, which resulted in at least one user getting kicked off the platform.

In a statement to CNN Business, a Tinder spokesperson said its app is a place for meeting and conversing with new people, which can involve political policies and candidates, for example. "We encourage this as long as they remain respectful, human and free from spam," the spokesperson said.

Tinder's policies around election-related behavior, outlined here, make clear that the app cannot be used by volunteers or workers for a candidate or campaign to do phone banking. Additionally, it states that "if the sole purpose of your profile is to advocate for a candidate, party or position and not to have meaningful conversations or interactions with other members - regardless of whether you identify as a member of a campaign or employee of an organization - then your profile may be removed."

Kawahata said not everyone has been willing to chat politics — one man unmatched with her on the app when she started talking about voting — but she said she's been "shocked" by the number of people on the app who are still undecided this close to Election Day and who were willing to chat with her and hear her perspective.

The pandemic could be making people more receptive to such conversations. "Everyone is bored online and lonely," she said.

Andrea Vallone, a 27-year old who works at a major tech company, started banking on Hinge after hearing about the idea through Kawahata. She said she's reached several dozen voters in recent days. "On a dating app, your mindset isn't fight or flight immediately. ... You get more bites at the apple," she told CNN Business. "Phone scammers have sort of cannibalized everyone's willingness to answer the phone from an unknown, out of state zip code."

Ann Yang, a 27-year-old who works at a mission-driven startup and heard about the idea of Hinge-banking through a social media post by Kawahata, also compared Hinge-banking to other traditional methods she's participated in, such as volunteering to phone bank or text bank for campaigns. She said she's found the Hinge conversations to be more engaging and effective in terms of convincing someone to vote or influencing their choice.

She shared the concept with a group of her friends, including Weyhrauch and Shayan Said, a 27-year-old lawyer in the Bay Area who told CNN Business that he changed his location on Hinge to Tarrant County in Texas, which includes Fort Worth, to give it a try.

He didn't have much luck matching with people in Texas, so he went back through his previous matches in the Bay Area and started asking them about their voting plans, even though California is hardly a battleground state.

He's had mixed results. While one person told him it was "off-putting" that he was trying to discuss politics, another voting conversation led to other banter and even a phone number. "It has been cool to see the impact it is having on my personal dating life," he said.

© Courtesy Shayan Shayan Said reached back out to people he previously matched with on Hinge to chat voting

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© Courtesy Molly Kawahata People are using Hinge and other dating platforms to reach voters in swing states and encourage voting.