THE LIZARD KING
50 years after his death, Paris remembers Jim Morrison


Issued on: 01/07/2021
Jim Morrison's grave is notoriously difficult to find, a deliberate decision of the family who feared a deluge of fans Philippe LOPEZ AFP/File

Paris (AFP)

He occupies a small, tucked-away corner of a Paris cemetery, but many thousands still seek it out: half a century since his death, Jim Morrison remains a fabled presence in the City of Light.

The death of The Doors' frontman on July 3, 1971 was one of the key signs that the optimism of the 1960s was coming to a grim end.

Today, the Lizard King lies in the Pere-Lachaise cemetery at the eastern end of the city.


Even with Google Maps, it can be tricky to find -- a deliberate decision of the family who rightly feared a deluge of fans.

"It's a cemetery that he particularly loved. He often came walking here," says rock critic and Doors aficionado Sophie Rosemont.

"He would have wanted to be buried next to Oscar Wilde," she said, referring to the other famous tenant of the cemetery, but the spot would have been too prominent.

The grave's seclusion has not prevented millions from paying their respects over the decades -- the photo of another rock legend, Patti Smith, posing here is itself iconic.

Its headstone is protected by barriers that will no doubt be under threat again this week.

- 'Didn't die here' -

Morrison's last home was an apartment on the third floor of 17 rue Beautreillis in the bohemian district of the Marais.

It was owned by model Elizabeth "Zozo" Lariviere, and Morrison moved there with his girlfriend Pamela Courson, hoping to escape the madness of his fame in the United States and dedicate himself to writing.

He would survive just three months in Paris.

The official version is that he died in his bath tub of cardiac arrest, aged 27.

But on the facade of his old building, someone has left a note: "Jim Morrison didn't die here" -- a sign that another story has long been making the rounds.

Journalist Sam Bernett has investigated the case over the years, and argues that the rock legend overdosed in the toilets of a nightclub, the Rock'n'Roll Circus, that he helped run.

"His face was grey, his eyes closed, there was blood under his nose and a white foam around his slightly open mouth and in his beard, he was not breathing," Bernett writes in "The End: Jim Morrison".

Singer and sixties icon Marianne Faithfull backed that story in an interview with Mojo magazine, saying the fatal dose came from dealer-to-the-stars Jean de Breteuil, whom she was dating at the time.

- 'Friends of Jim' -

The club at 57 rue de Seine -- long gone -- "was a fairly crazy place", says Rosemont.

"It was frequented by intellectuals, hippies, little thugs, big thugs, bourgeois folks, stars like Mick Jagger...."

As she is speaking at the site to AFP, an American introduces himself.

Pete has been coming here regularly since 1991 around the anniversary of Morrison's death, holding meetings with other "friends of Jim in cafes around Pere-Lachaise".

Other stops on the pilgrimage might include Place des Vosges and the book kiosks that line the Seine where Morrison liked to wander, trying to stay as anonymous as possible.

And also the famous English-language bookshop Shakespeare and Company.

"It's a place that Morrison very quickly became attached to. He didn't speak very good French, even if he loved Rimbaud, Beaudelaire, Mallarme a lot," says Rosemont.

This brought him regularly into the Left Bank, near the home of his friend, the film-maker Agnes Varda, and Cafe La Palette where he liked to drink, and where a few glasses will no doubt be raised to his name on Saturday.

© 2021 AFP

DISASTER CAPITALI$M

Dead Children found beneath collapsed Florida building as death toll rises

Issued on: 01/07/2021 - 

Rescue personnel continue the search and rescue operation for survivors at the site of a partially collapsed residential building in Surfside, near Miami Beach, Florida, U.S. June 30, 2021. © REUTERS/Marco Bello

Six more bodies have been found in the shattered ruins of a collapsed Miami-area condominium tower in the past 24 hours, the mayor of Miami-Dade County said on Wednesday, bringing the confirmed death toll to 18 nearly a week after the building fell.

Nobody has been pulled alive from the mounds of pulverised concrete, splintered lumber and twisted metal since the early hours of the disaster in the oceanfront town of Surfside, adjacent to Miami Beach.

Miami-Dade County Mayor Daniella Levine Cava told a news conference 147 people remained missing and feared trapped in the ruins of the Champlain Towers South condo. She said two of the 18 confirmed fatalities were children, aged 10 and 4.

"The loss of children is too great to bear," Levine Cava said. "Our community, our nation and the world all are mourning with these families who have lost loved ones."

Officials have said they still harbour hope of finding survivors. Surfside Mayor Charles Burkett said in an interview he had promised families that rescue crews were "not leaving anyone behind" as teams dig deeper into the rubble.

"We've not gotten to the bottom. We don't know what's down there," he said. "We're not going to guess. We're not going to make a life-or-death decision to arbitrarily stop searching for people who may be alive in that rubble."

He said every day the mound of wreckage is visibly shrinking, indicating progress.

Two teams of dogs were helping to scour the pile - one trained to sniff out survivors, the other to detect cadavers.

Investigators have not concluded what caused nearly half of the 40-year-old high-rise to crumple into a heap as residents slept in the early hours of last Thursday.

But in 2018, the engineering firm Morabito Consultants prepared a report ahead of a building safety recertification process, finding structural deficiencies in the 12-floor, 136-unit complex that are now the focus of inquiries.

As recently as April, the condo association's president warned residents in a letter that severe concrete damage identified by the engineer around the base of the building had since grown "significantly worse."

On Wednesday, the relatives of a missing resident, Harold Rosenberg, filed a lawsuit in Florida's 11th Circuit Court against the Champlain Towers South Condominium Association Inc; Morabito Consultants Inc; and SD Architects P.A., a firm the lawsuit says was retained by the association to repair the building.

The lawsuit says the defendants "ignored obvious and shocking warning signs and indications that a catastrophe was imminent" and sought unspecified damages to be paid to the estate of Rosenberg, presumed dead, for negligence.

"Given the location of his residence, Harold Rosenberg is likely located at the very bottom of the mountain of rubble that search-and-rescue personnel have only begun to chip away at," the lawsuit said. "Hope is dwindling by the day."

The architect's firm could not be immediately reached for comment.

Brett Marcy, a spokesman for Morabito, said in a statement that the firm's 2018 report "offered detailed findings and recommendations regarding extensive and necessary structural repairs for the condo building."

Both Marcy and Maria Stagliano, a spokesperson for the condo association, said in separate statements that they could not comment on claims made in pending litigation but were working with investigators to understand why the building collapsed.

(REUTERS)

Murder of the Dead by Amadeo Bordiga 1951

Haitian journalist, activist killed in suspected revenge attacks in Haiti

Issued on: 01/07/2021 -

Haitians demonstrate on December 10, 2020, in Port-au-Prince, on the occasion of International Human Rights Day, demanding their right to life in the face of an upsurge in kidnappings perpetrated by gangs. © AFP - Valerie Baeriswyl

At least 15 people, including a journalist and an opposition activist, were killed in Haiti in overnight violence suspected to be revenge attacks after the death of a police officer, officials said Wednesday.

Photographs of reporter Diego Charles lying dead on the ground and of political activist Antoinette Duclair dead in her car circulated on Haitian social media.

"In reaction to the assassination of Guerby Geffrard (the police officer killed), his allies concocted this morning's shootings which resulted in the death of 15 peaceful citizens," national police chief Leon Charles told a press conference.

Charles said an investigation into the violence in the capital Port-au-Prince had been opened "to trace all the perpetrators and co-perpetrators of the crimes committed."

Geffrard, spokesperson for a police union that is in open conflict with the police force, was shot hours before the shooting spree in the same city district.

Charles' statements sparked criticism from journalists and civil rights organisations, who doubt their truth.

"To come out and simply say, 'We know the double murder of Diego Charles and Antoinette Duclair came from this union,' we think that is acting with great haste and above all great casualness," said Marie Rosy August Ducena of the National Network for the Defense of Human Rights, a non-governmental organisation.

Locals angered by the violence protested by dumping flaming tires in the road.

The brother of a famous Haitian singer was also among the victims of the shooting.

Prime Minister Claude Joseph's office released a statement expressing his condolences.

"These horrible crimes and these reprehensible actions cannot go unpunished in a democratic society," Joseph said.

Worsening violence

Violence has been sharply on the rise in Haiti this year, with gun fights between rival groups prompting many residents of poor districts of the city to flee their homes.

"We are in a situation where human rights are being denied and life is being trivialised... We cannot continue to count bodies every day," said Ducena.

Journalists also expressed their concerns about the deaths.

"We are dismayed by this murder, which lengthens the list of journalists killed in the past three years," said Jacques Desrosiers, head of the Haitian Journalists Association.

"As they always do, judicial authorities will announce investigations that lead nowhere," said Desrosiers. "We are used to that."

In 2000, Haiti's most prominent journalist, Jean Dominique, was murdered in a case that remains unsolved to this day.

"There was no justice for Jean Dominique, as there will be none for Diego. We are left to fend for ourselves," said Assad Volcy, director of Gazette Haiti, an online news outlet for which Charles worked.

More recently, photojournalist Vladjimir Legagneur went to the now gang-plagued Martissant neighborhood of the capital on a reporting assignment in 2018 and was never heard from again.

Police have still not published the results of DNA tests performed on a body found a few days after Legagneur vanished.

Probes into the killing of two journalists in 2019 also yielded nothing.

Thousands of residents of Martissant have become refugees in their own city, living in sports centers or temporary accommodation in private homes because of the gang violence.

Undermined by insecurity and political instability, Haiti is struggling to emerge from a string of seemingly never-ending crises, which of late have resulted in a surge in kidnappings and gang violence.

(AFP)

Sudan protesters call for government to resign over harsh economic reforms

Issued on: 01/07/2021 - 

Sudanese march during a demonstration in the capital Khartoum urging the government to step down on June 30, 2021. © Ashraf Shazly, AFP

Hundreds of Sudanese protesters took to the streets of major cities on Wednesday to demand the government's resignation over IMF-backed economic reforms seen as too harsh, AFP correspondents said.

"We want the fall of the regime" and "No to (IMF) policies", shouted demonstrators who massed outside the presidential palace in Khartoum.

The protests erupted a day after the International Monetary Fund approved a $2.5 billion loan and debt relief deal that will see Sudan's external debt reduced by some $50 billion.

Public discontent has mounted over the reforms that slashed subsidies on petrol and diesel, more than doubling their price.

The dozens who had gathered in Khartoum burned tyres and brandished banners that read "Bread for the poor", before they were dispersed by police who fired tear gas, an AFP correspondent reported.

In a statement later Wednesday, Sudan's interior ministry said 52 police officers were wounded in clashes with protesters in several parts of Khartoum.

Security forces also used tear gas against demonstrators who attempted to join the protests from Omdurman, the capital's twin city across the Nile.

'Blood for blood'

In Kassala, in Sudan's east, dozens of protesters demanded justice for people killed in demonstrations that toppled autocratic president Omar al-Bashir in April 2019.

"Blood for blood, we will not accept compensation," some of them chanted.

Sudan has been led by a transitional civilian-military administration since August 2019.

The government has vowed to fix the country's economy, battered by decades of mismanagement, internal conflict and international sanctions under Bashir.

On Wednesday, Prime Minister Abdalla Hamdok praised Sudan's people for their "patience" and "endurance".

"We are on the right track," the premier said in a televised speech after the IMF announcement of the debt relief deal.

Ahead of the protests, Sudanese authorities said they arrested 79 people suspected of links to Bashir's regime for allegedly planning violence.

Wednesday's demonstrations coincide with the anniversary of an Islamist-backed military coup which brought Bashir to power more than 30 years ago.

(AFP)

ALMO DENIES RAMPANT FEMICIDE
Abused Mexican women face hard battle for justice

Issued on: 01/07/2021 - 

Marisela Oliva has bruises on her arms and uses a walking frame because of abuse by her ex-partner CLAUDIO CRUZ AFP


Tlalnepantla de Baz (Mexico) (AFP)

Battered and bruised from the last beating by her ex-partner, Marisela Oliva waits alone outside a court in the Mexican capital for a hearing to decide if he will walk free.

Her only aim is to see justice served -- no easy feat in a country where 94 percent of crimes against women go unpunished, according to a government commission set up to tackle the problem.

"If the authorities release him, where will I go to protect myself? Where am I going to hide if I'm facing death threats?" said the 58-year-old, who uses a walking frame due to her injuries.

Her case is just one of thousands like it in Mexico, which has been facing a scourge of gender violence.

The government reported 423 femicides between January and May of this year, an increase of 7.1 percent from the same period of 2020, when 967 cases were recorded for the whole year.

Even getting to court was a struggle for Oliva.

Police in the central State of Mexico treated her case as a lovers' tiff and did not bother to take a full statement, she said.

It was only with the help of an activist she contacted that the wheels of justice slowly began to grind into motion.

"What's the justice system waiting for? That he kills me?" she said.

The hearing resulted in the man being kept in preventive custody.

- 'They doubt our word' -

Daniela Sanchez, a 37-year-old government worker, is seeking justice for the years of physical and psychological abuse that she said her ex-partner inflicted on her.

She feels that she is facing a wall of impunity.#photo1

"From the first moment we approach the authorities, they doubt our word and the marks on our bodies," Sanchez said.

Mexico lacks an institutional framework capable of "responding to a phenomenon as complex" as violence against women, said Fatima Gamboa, co-director of the civil organization Equis Justicia.

In most cases judicial authorities fail to identify possible situations or behavior that put women at risk, or to issue the necessary protection orders, the group's analysis suggests.

"Justice is not administered with a gender perspective," Gamboa said.

The government has launched several initiatives aimed at preventing violence against women.

They include legal centers that officials say have advised 100,000 people this year, as well as shelters for women at risk.

In Mexico City, all murders of women are initially investigated as femicides.

- 'Exhausting' -

A 34-year-old woman, who gave her name only as Gris, said the legal struggle against her ex-partner had drained all her energy.

When he was drunk he broke into the small kitchen that she had set up with other women to escape unemployment and violence.

He is accused of beating them and destroying furniture, but the response of the authorities has disappointed Gris.

The police took 45 minutes to arrive, the attacker is still free and the case was classified as domestic violence, she said.

"It's sad, exhausting. You don't eat," Gris said.

Even when violence is fatal, it can be hard for relatives to get justice.

Monica Borrego's daughter Yang Kyung Jun died aged 21 in 2014 -- killed, she believes, at the hands of a man already facing accusations of attempted femicide.

The case was initially closed as a suicide even though the body bore signs of violence.

The family had to fight to have the case reopened, resulting in the suspect recently going on trial.#photo2

She remembers one official who dismissed her as a "hysterical mother."

Two years after the death, Margarita Alanis lost her 31-year-old daughter Campira Camorlinga, a mother of two.

The two women believe the same man was behind both killings and tried to make them look like suicides.

"Campira wouldn't have been killed if he had been arrested after what he did to Yang," said Alanis, who believes the Mexican judiciary does not take femicides seriously.

© 2021 AFP

Turkey formally withdraws from treaty to prevent violence against women

Issued on: 01/07/2021

Activists during a protest against Turkey's withdrawal from an international accord designed to protect women, in Istanbul, Turkey, June 19, 2021. © Umit Bektas, Reuters


Turkey officially withdrew on Thursday from an international treaty to prevent violence against women, enacting a decision that drew condemnation from many Turks and Western allies when President Tayyip Erdogan announced it in March.

Thousands were set to protest across Turkey, where a court appeal to halt the withdrawal was rejected this week.

"We will continue our struggle," Canan Gullu, president of the Federation of Turkish Women's Associations, said on Wednesday. "Turkey is shooting itself in the foot with this decision."

She said that since March, women and other vulnerable groups had been more reluctant to ask for help and less likely to receive it, with COVID-19 fuelled economic difficulties causing a dramatic increase in violence against them.

The Istanbul Convention, negotiated in Turkey's biggest city and signed in 2011, committed its signatories to prevent and prosecute domestic violence and promote equality.

Ankara's withdrawal triggered condemnation from both the United States and the European Union, and critics say it puts Turkey even further out of step with the bloc that it applied to join in 1987.

Femicide has surged in Turkey, with one monitoring group logging roughly one per day in the last five years.

More stringent implementation needed

Proponents of the convention and related legislation say more stringent implementation is needed.

But many conservatives in Turkey and in Erdogan's Islamist-rooted AK Party say the pact undermines the family structures that protect society.

Some also see the Convention as promoting homosexuality through its principle of non-discrimination on grounds of sexual orientation.

"Our country's withdrawal from the convention will not lead to any legal or practical shortcoming in the prevention of violence against women," Erdogan's office said in a statement to the administrative court on Tuesday.

This month, Council of Europe Commissioner for Human Rights Dunja Mijatovic sent a letter to Turkey's interior and justice ministers expressing concern about a rise in homophobic narratives by some officials, some of which targeted the convention.

"All the measures provided for by the Istanbul Convention reinforce family foundations and links by preventing and combating the main cause of destruction of families, that is, violence," she said.

(REUTERS)

Women face period poverty as Lebanon's economic crisis deepens

Issued on: 01/07/2021 - 

A Lebanese woman inspects prices of female sanitary pads at a shop in the capital Beirut on June 23, 2021. © Jospeh Eid, AFP


With prices soaring in crisis-hit Lebanon, Sherine can no longer afford sanitary pads. So instead each month, she is forced to make her own using baby nappies or even rags.

"With all the price hikes and the frustration of not being able to manage, I'd rather stop having my period altogether," the 28-year-old told AFP, tears rolling down her cheeks.

The price of menstrual pads, the vast majority of which are imported, has risen by almost 500 percent since the start of a financial crisis the World Bank has dubbed likely one of the world's worst since the 1850s.

Packs of sanitary towels now cost between 13,000 and 35,000 Lebanese pounds -- between $8.60 and $23 at the official exchange rate -- up from just 3,000 pounds ($2) before the economic crisis.

With more than half the population living in poverty, tens of thousands of women are now on a desperate hunt for affordable alternatives.

Sherine initially turned to cheap sanitary pads that she said caused skin irritation, but even those have become too costly.

"Right now, I'm using towels and pieces of cloth," she said.

"At first, I felt defeated," the young mother told AFP, her hair tied up in a bun.

"But I chose to put my daughter first. I would rather buy her milk. As for me, I can make do."

But that has often meant repurposing some of the diapers a charity shop has given her for her toddler, cutting each in half to create two separate pads.

She said the process has been one of trial and error.

In the beginning, "I was always having to check if (blood) had leaked and stained my pants," she said.

Newspaper, toilet paper

The Lebanese pound has lost more than 90 percent of its value against the dollar on the black market since the autumn of 2019, and Lebanese earning salaries in the local currency have seen their buying power plummet.

The government has subsidised essential goods including medicine, fuel and flour to ease the blow, but has come under fire for failing to include pads on its list.

In the absence of state support, the Dawrati (My Period) initiative was launched last year to address rising period poverty in Lebanon.

The group distributes free menstrual products to women in need, including some who were once members of the fast-vanishing middle class.

"Middle-class women also need them -- like a bank employee whose salary in Lebanese pounds is no longer enough to get by," said co-founder Line Masri.

According to Dawrati, half of women suffering from period poverty are using newspaper, toilet paper or old rags instead of pads, while two-thirds of adolescent girls have no means of purchasing sanitary products.

Yet the association is struggling to keep up.

"We aren't able to meet demand... because donations have declined significantly," Masri said.

At a Beirut charity store initially set up to distribute free clothes to the needy, employee Izdihar said a growing number of women were struggling to manage their periods.

Izdihar said she even sometimes had to resort to giving baby diapers from the store to her three daughters, aged 12 to 14.

Her youngest, who started menstruating this year, was having trouble adapting.

"She's stopped leaving the house when she has her period," Izdihar said.

Syria 'all over again'

Activists are seeking to produce viable alternatives to disposable pads.

In the Shatila Palestinian refugee camp in Beirut, international NGO Days For Girls and local partner WingWoman Lebanon are training refugee women to stitch reusable sanitary pads out of colourful cloth.

Each includes a protective shield and absorbent liner, and can be washed and reused for up to three years.

The project already distributes them to Lebanon's most vulnerable communities, including in Syrian refugee camps.

Rima Ali, a Syrian mother of six, was among dozens learning to make the pads.

The 45-year-old, who fled the war in Syria nine years ago, said she used to buy only the cheapest pads for herself and her three daughters, but they had become prohibitively expensive.

With her family running through around six packets a month, reusable pads seemed like a much better option.

"Back in Syria, there were some rough days when we couldn't even afford to buy bread," she said. "We used to cut up material to use" instead of sanitary pads.

"I never thought we would have to relive it all over again."

Prototype flying car travels between Slovakian cities


June 30 (UPI) -- A Slovakian company took its prototype flying car for a test flight between two cities, spending a total 35 minutes in the air.

Klein Vision announced its AirCar Prototype 1 spent 35 minutes flying between the cities of Nita and Bratislava on Monday, marking the first successful intercity flight for the company.

The company said the AirCar reached a maximum cruising speed of 118 mph and the trip was about half as long as a typical drive between the two cities.

"AirCar is no longer just a proof of concept," Klein Vision co-founder Anton Zajac said in a news release. "It has turned science fiction into a reality."

The AirCar, which contains a 160 horsepower BMW engine, is designed to convert into a sports car in a button-operated process that takes about 3 minutes to complete.

The company said it is now working on the AirCar Prototype 2, which will feature a 300 horsepower engine and is expected to cruise at up to 186 mph with a range of 621 miles.

Detergent maker helps NASA explore space laundry

NASA astronaut Jessica Meir exercises in space in 2020, where doing laundry currently is impossible. Photo courtesy of NASA

ORLANDO, Fla., June 25 (UPI) -- A detergent maker and NASA are teaming up to research how astronauts could do laundry in space, especially on Deep Space missions, using minimal energy and water.

Procter & Gamble has signed a pact with NASA, known as a Space Act Agreement. Under the pact, NASA seeks laundry solutions in space, while the detergent, Tide, gains publicity and furthers product development. Both parties pay their own costs.

NASA wants to avoid shipping hundreds of pounds of clothing to astronauts, who wear them for a few days before discarding. The space agency eventually disposes of the worn clothing in a cargo spacecraft that burns up in the atmosphere, researcher Mark Sivik said in an interview.

"We can't continue to send out large quantities of garments, so we're researching ways to clean clothes more effectively," said Sivik, a staff scientist for Ohio-based Procter & Gamble. "NASA is asking, 'Are there ways to actually do laundry in space?'"

The company has taken on the project to gain knowledge and experience by testing potential new products in microgravity, Sivik said. Many firms pay NASA thousands of dollars to conduct such research in space.



Lack of gravity in space means water, clothes and soap don't behave the same as on Earth.

Since shipping water to the orbiting laboratory is expensive, water is recycled and conserved as a precious commodity, Sivik said. That would become nearly impossible on a long trip to Mars, which at a minimum is 34 million miles away.
Astronauts are required to exercise nearly two hours per day to offset the effects of microgravity on their muscles and bones, during which time their clothing gets sweaty, Sivik said.

The project will send to the space station in December a detergent that contains enzymes to break down dirt in clothes naturally -- to see how it behaves after six months in microgravity. Then, in May, a spacecraft will carry spot stain removal pens and wipes to determine their effectiveness in space.

At some point, the space agency hopes to test a washing machine in space, Sivik said.

"We've done a lot of development on the use of cold water and minimal water usage, and we're looking at using a machine that combines the washer and dryer in one unit," he said.

A laundry solution that uses less water in space could have benefits on Earth, as well, Mike Ewert, a NASA life support and thermal systems analyst, said in an email.

"Using less water in space is important for recycling reasons, and using less water on Earth is important as more areas become water stressed in the future," due to population growth and climate change, Ewert said.

Laundry machines for the surface of the moon or Mars may require only minimal alteration, while such machines may have to be drastically altered to function properly in microgravity, he said.

"A washer and dryer may be added to missions when the benefits, such as throwing away less clothing, outweigh the resources needed to clean them," Ewert said.

The crew of SpaceX's Dragon capsule Endeavour, seen in black shirts, boarded the International Space Station on April 24 boosting the population of the orbiting laboratory to 11 for the first time in years. Photo courtesy of NASA

CRIMINAL CAPITALI$M
Robinhood to pay $70M for 'misleading' customers, systems outages

FINRA said Robinhood changed the way stocks are traded, but failed to play by the rules. Photo by John Angelillo/UPI | License Photo

June 30 (UPI) -- The Financial Industry Regulatory Authority on Wednesday fined trading app Robinhood $57 million and ordered it to pay $12.6 million in restitution for "misleading" customers and systems outages last year.

The watchdog said Robinhood also approved trade options for customers even when it was "not appropriate" to do so.

"This action sends a clear message -- all FINRA member firms, regardless of their size or business model, must comply with the rules that govern the brokerage industry, rules which are designed to protect investors and the integrity of our markets," said Jessica Hopper, executive vice president and head of FINRA's Department of Enforcement.

"Compliance with these rules is not optional and cannot be sacrificed for the sake of innovation or a willingness to 'break things' and fix them later. The fine imposed in this matter, the highest ever levied by FINRA, reflects the scope and seriousness of Robinhood's violations, including FINRA's finding that Robinhood communicated false and misleading information to millions of its customers."

The Menlo Park, Calif.-based trading app was created in 2013 with an apparent mission to upend the status quo among U.S. trading companies. It began offering commission-free trades on its mobile app in 2015, forcing other companies to drop fees to compete.

The FINRA announcement noted outages on the Robinhood app between January 2018 and February 2021, most notably in March 2020.

"Robinhood's inability to accept or execute customer orders during these outages resulted in individual customers losing tens of thousands of dollars, and FINRA is requiring that the firm pay more than $5 million in restitution to affected customers," FINRA said.

The FINRA fines are unrelated to Robinhood's shuttering of trades earlier this year during the so-called meme stock trading involving GameStop shares.

Robinhood posted to its website Wednesday that it's made changes -- including adding more customer support and offering better information -- to its app and process.

"Our customers are at the forefront of every decision we make and we're committed to making continuous improvements so that investing can be accessible to all," the company said.