Month: October 2023

It hardly mattered that “Five Nights at Freddy’s” was released simultaneously in theaters and on streaming this weekend. Fans flocked to movie theaters across the country to see the scary video game adaptation on the big screen, which made $78 million to top the North American box office, according to studio estimates Sunday.

Universal Pictures bet on a day-and-date release on the weekend before Halloween, sending it to 3,675 theaters in the U.S. and Canada, while also making it available for Peacock subscribers, the subscription streaming service owned by NBCUniversal. The movie also opened in 64 markets internationally, where it’s expected to gross $52.6 million, giving the film a $130.6 million global launch – the biggest of any horror released this year.

“It was an extraordinary debut,” said Jim Orr, the president of domestic distribution for Universal, who praised Blumhouse, the filmmakers and the studio’s marketing department for the targeted campaign.

“Our marketing department continues to be one of the great superpowers we have at Universal,” he said.

Blumhouse, the company behind “Paranormal Activity,” “Get Out” and recent horror hits like “M3GAN” and “The Black Phone,” produced “Five Nights at Freddy’s,” which was directed by Emma Tammi and stars Josh Hutcherson, Mary Stuart Masterson and Matthew Lillard. The popular video game series, in which a security guard has to fend off murderous animatronic characters at a rundown family pizza restaurant, Freddy Fazbear’s Pizza, was created by Scott Cawthon and first released in 2014.

While the game’s fanbase was strong, and passionate, the movie took many years to make. Producer Jason Blum said in an interview with IGN earlier this year that he was made fun of for pursuing an adaptation.

“Everyone said we could never get the movie done, including, by the way, internally in my company,” Blum said. They made the film with a reported $20 million production budget.

And it paid off: “Five Nights at Freddy’s” is his company’s biggest opening of all time, surpassing “Halloween’s” domestic and global debut. It’s also Blumhouse’s 19th No. 1 debut, which Orr noted is an “amazing accomplishment.”

The opening weekend audience was predominately male (58%) and overwhelmingly young, with an estimated 80% under the age of 25 and 38% between the ages of 13 and 17.

While the numbers aren’t surprising for anyone who knows the game’s audience, it is still notable for a generation not known for making theatrical moviegoing a priority.

“It’s great to get that kind of audience in theaters,” Orr said.

Audiences gave the film an A- CinemaScore, which could be promising for future weekends too.

“It’s a very young demographic,” said Paul Dergarabedian, the senior media analyst for Comscore. “It won’t be lost on any of the other studios or video game manufacturers. This door has been kicked wide open.”

It’s also notable that so many chose theaters even though it was also available to watch at home.

“In some cases streaming can be additive and complimentary to theatrical,” Dergarabedian said. “Clearly audiences wanted that communal experience.

“Five Nights at Freddy’s” did not score well with critics, however. It currently has a dismal 25% on Rotten Tomatoes. AP’s Mark Kennedy wrote that it “has to go down as one of the poorest films in any genre this year.” But like many other horror movies, it appears to be critic-proof.

In second place, “Taylor Swift: The Eras Tour” is expected to cross $200 million in global grosses by the end of Sunday, having added $14.7 million domestically and $6.7 million internationally this weekend. The concert film, distributed by AMC Theatres, is in its third weekend in theaters where it is only playing from Thursday through Sunday, though there will be “special Halloween showtimes” on Tuesday at a discounted price of $13.13.

Third place went to Martin Scorsese’s “Killers of the Flower Moon,” which added $9 million in its second weekend, bringing its total domestic earnings to $40.7 million, according to Paramount. With an additional $14.1 million from international showings, the film’s global total now stands at over $88 million.

Angel Studios’ “After Death,” a Christian documentary film about people who have had near death experiences, opened in fourth place to $5.1 million from 2,645 locations.

And “The Exorcist: Believer” rounded out the top five with $3.1 million in its fourth weekend, bringing its domestic earnings to just shy of $60 million.

Several of the fall’s high-profile films also launched in very limited release this weekend, including Alexander Payne’s “The Holdovers” and Sofia Coppola’s “Priscilla.” Both opened exclusively in New York and Los Angeles and will expand in the coming weeks.

Focus Features’ “The Holdovers,” starring Paul Giamatti as a curmudgeonly ancient history teacher at a New England prep school, debuted in six theaters where it earned an estimated $200,000.

Coppola’s “Priscilla,” about Priscilla Presley’s life with Elvis, also opened on four screens in New York and Los Angeles, where it averaged $33,035 per screen. With a cumulative gross of $132,139, the A24 release starring Cailee Spaeny and Jacob Elordi expands nationwide next weekend.

“It was an eclectic and exciting weekend for moviegoers,” Dergarabedian said. “If you couldn’t find a film to your liking, you’re not looking hard enough.”

Estimated ticket sales for Friday through Sunday at U.S. and Canadian theaters, according to Comscore. Final domestic figures will be released Monday.

1. “Five Nights at Freddy’s,” $78 million.

2. “Taylor Swift: The Eras Tour,” $14.7 million.

3. “Killers of the Flower Moon,” $9 million.

4. “After Death,” $5.1 million.

5. “The Exorcist: Believer,” $3.1 million.

6. “Paw Patrol: The Mighty Movie,” $2.2 million.

7. “Freelance,” $2.1 million.

8. “The Nightmare Before Christmas” (re-release), $2 million.

9. “Saw X,” $1.7 million.

10. “The Creator,” $1 million.
    …

As Israel continued expanding its military operations in Gaza Sunday, the U.S. reiterated its calls for the protection of innocent human life. Separately, a U.S. military expert warns that Israel’s mission to destroy Hamas could prove almost impossible. VOA’s Veronica Balderas Iglesias reports.
…

Alan Mazzotti can see the Rocky Mountains about 30 miles west of his pumpkin patch in northeast Colorado on a clear day. He could tell the snow was abundant last winter, and verified it up close when he floated through fresh powder alongside his wife and three sons at the popular Winter Park Resort.

But one season of above-average snowfall wasn’t enough to refill the dwindling reservoir he relies on to irrigate his pumpkins. He received news this spring that his water delivery would be about half of what it was from the previous season, so he planted just half of his typical pumpkin crop. Then heavy rains in May and June brought plenty of water and turned fields into a muddy mess, preventing any additional planting many farmers might have wanted to do.

“By time it started raining and the rain started to affect our reservoir supplies and everything else, it was just too late for this year,” Mazzotti said.

For some pumpkin growers in states like Texas, New Mexico and Colorado, this year’s pumpkin crop was a reminder of the water challenges hitting agriculture across the Southwest and West as human-caused climate change exacerbates drought and heat extremes. Some farmers lost 20% or more of their predicted yields; others, like Mazzotti, left some land bare. Labor costs and inflation are also narrowing margins, hitting farmers’ ability to profit off what they sell to garden centers and pumpkin patches.

This year’s thirsty gourds are a symbol of the reality that farmers who rely on irrigation must continue to face season after season: they have to make choices, based on water allotments and the cost of electricity to pump it out of the ground, about which acres to plant and which crops they can gamble on to make it through hotter and drier summers.

Pumpkins can survive hot, dry weather to an extent, but this summer’s heat, which broke world records and brought temperatures well over 100 degrees Fahrenheit (38 degrees Celsius) to agricultural fields across the country, was just too much, said Mark Carroll, a Texas A&M extension agent for Floyd County, which he calls the “pumpkin capital” of the state.

“It’s one of the worst years we’ve had in several years,” Carroll said. Not only did the hot, dry weather surpass what irrigation could make up for, but pumpkins also need cooler weather to be harvested or they’ll start to decompose during the shipping process, sometimes disintegrating before they even arrive at stores.

America’s pumpkin powerhouse, Illinois, had a successful harvest on par with the last two years, according to the Illinois Farm Bureau. But this year it was so hot into the harvest season in Texas that farmers had to decide whether to risk cutting pumpkins off the vines at the usual time or wait and miss the start of the fall pumpkin rush. Adding to the problem, irrigation costs more as groundwater levels continue to drop — driving some farmers’ energy bills to pump water into the thousands of dollars every month.

Lindsey Pyle, who farms 950 acres of pumpkins in North Texas about an hour outside Lubbock, has seen her energy bills go up too, alongside the cost of just about everything else, from supplies and chemicals to seed and fuel. She lost about 20% of her yield. She added that pumpkins can be hard to predict earlier in the growing season because the vines might look lush and green, but not bloom and produce fruit if they aren’t getting enough water.

Steven Ness, who grows pinto beans and pumpkins in central New Mexico, said the rising cost of irrigation as groundwater dwindles is an issue across the board for farmers in the region. That can inform what farmers choose to grow, because if corn and pumpkins use about the same amount of water, they might get more money per acre for selling pumpkins, a more lucrative crop.

But at the end of the day, “our real problem is groundwater, … the lack of deep moisture and the lack of water in the aquifer,” Ness said. That’s a problem that likely won’t go away because aquifers can take hundreds or thousands of years to refill after overuse, and climate change is reducing the very rain and snow needed to recharge them in the arid West.

Jill Graves, who added a pumpkin patch to her blueberry farm about an hour east of Dallas about three years ago, said they had to give up on growing their own pumpkins this year and source them from a wholesaler. Graves said the pumpkins she bought rotted more quickly than in past years, but it was better than what little they grew themselves.

Still, she thinks they’ll try again next year. “They worked perfect the first two years,” she said. “We didn’t have any problems.”

Mazzotti, for his part, says that with not enough water, you “might as well not farm” — but even so, he sees labor as the bigger issue. Farmers in Colorado have been dealing with water cutbacks for a long time, and they’re used to it. However, pumpkins can’t be harvested by machine like corn can, so they require lots of people to determine they’re ripe, cut them off the vines and prepare them for shipping. 

He hires guest workers through the H-2A program, but Colorado recently instituted a law ensuring farmworkers to be paid overtime — something most states don’t require. That makes it tough to maintain competitive prices with places where laborers are paid less, and the increasing costs of irrigation and supplies stack onto that, creating what Mazzotti calls a “no-win situation.”

He’ll keep farming pumpkins for a bit longer, but “there’s no future after me,” he said. “My boys won’t farm.” 
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Vietnamese automaker Vinfast plunged right into the crowded and hypercompetitive U.S. auto market, gambling that if it can sell its electric vehicles to finicky Americans, it can succeed anywhere. 

So far, that gamble has yet to pay off. Its CEO Le Thi Thu Thuy said in a recent interview with The Associated Press that the U.S. market is “difficult.” It has sold just 2,009 electric vehicles in the U.S., less than 1% of total of total U.S. EV sales, according to Motorintelligence.com. 

Worldwide, Vinfast sold just 19,562 EVs from April-September, well below its 2023 target of 50,000. 

But Vinfast is committed to riding the wave of countries trying to switch to EVs to cut emissions, Thuy said while speaking with The Associated Press at Vinfast’s sleek headquarters in Hanoi. 

Prioritizing the U.S. market, despite its stringent regulations, tough scrutiny by the media, and opposition from Vinfast’s advisers was a deliberate decision, she said. 

“We wanted to go make our name in a very difficult market. Our rationale was very simple. If we can make it there, I mean, people will believe in us,” Thuy said. “So it’s an approval stamp to some extent. But it is very difficult.” 

Vinfast is a part of Vingroup, a sprawling conglomerate that began as an instant noodle company in Ukraine in the 1990s. The company built its first car in 2019 in a seaside factory close to Haiphong, where engineers monitor screens as gleaming metal sheets are expertly snatched by robotic arms and pressed to make frames, doors and other parts that are welded, assembled and painted before the vehicles are tested. 

In mid-August, Vinfast listed its shares on the Nasdaq, seeing them more than double in value to a peak of $82.35 that briefly put its market value above those of General Motors Corp. and Ford Motor Co. in late August. They are now trading at about $5.70.

But while investor enthusiasm cooled after an initial buying frenzy, the company is committed to the U.S. market: It is building a $4 billion EV factory southwest of Raleigh, North Carolina, where production is planned to begin next year.

Later this year, Vinfast plans to begin delivering EVs in Europe, Thuy said. It also is targeting markets in Southeast Asia, India and the Middle East, investing $400 million in electric vehicle factories in India and Indonesia. It aims to have a presence in 50 markets worldwide by 2024.

Vinfast is part of Vingroup, whose founder Pham Nhat Vuong became Vietnam’s richest man as the group’s revenue ballooned more than 50-fold in 2011-2022 to over $5.5 billion. 

The automaker’s ambitions dovetail with communist-ruled Vietnam’s plan to make the auto industry a backbone of the economy: Its tree-lined EV factory was built in less than two years by reclaiming 335 hectares of land from the sea. For now, it’s using only a fraction of its capacity to roll out 250,000 EVs a year.

Vingroup’s backing “helps immensely,” said Matthew Degen, a senior editor at Kelley Blue Book, an American car research company. The question is whether Vuong has the “stomach to go possibly years and years” losing money before Vinfast eventually becomes profitable.

Vinfast quickly abandoned a plan to sell EVs directly to customers like Tesla does and now is focused on working with dealers in the U.S. and Canada to capitalize on their local knowledge, Thuy said.

“We realized that this movement towards EVs is a lot faster than anticipated – and we need to join forces,” she said.

The few automakers that have managed to break into the U.S. have done so by either selling cheaper cars initially, like Hyundai or Kia, or by building a reputation based on performance or design, said Sam Abuelsamid, a mobility analyst for Guidehouse Insights.

“You’ve got to have something that distinguishes you from everyone. … Why are you different?” he said.

So far, it’s unclear what might attract buyers.

Not price. Vinfast’s VF8 crossover or medium-sized SUV starts at $46,000 in California, compared to the $43,990 for a Tesla Model Y. Tesla also qualifies for an additional $7,500 federal tax credit, which Vinfast won’t be eligible for until it begins making cars in their U.S. factory.

The VF8 sedan is around the same size as models made by EV rivals, like Nissan’s Ariya, but has a range of 264 miles (424 kilometers) on a single charge. The Ariya can go up to 304 miles on a charge.

The company could potentially reduce its manufacturing costs to make its cars more affordable, Abuelsamid said. But that would eat into any profit.

“It just costs so much money to start a car company from scratch,” he said.

Vinfast is expecting fresh investments of $1.2 billion from its founder and others in the next six months, as the company said in a securities filing this month.

EV makers without that kind of backing, like the Ohio-based Lordstown Motors in the U.S., which declared bankruptcy in June, are struggling to attain the scale they need to attain profitability. This month, Chinese EV maker WM Motor filed for bankruptcy.

Thuy said Vinfast hopes to attain the scale it needs to make it with sales in Asia. Its two plants in Indonesia and one in India are expected to turn out a total of 50,000 EVs annually, with production slated to begin in 2026, according to a securities filing.

Vinfast’s detractors say its sales of more than 7,000 of its EVs to Vingroup’s Green Smart Mobility taxi company reflects weak private demand for the vehicles. Thuy said the deployment of hundreds of its bright blue VF8s and Feliz S electric scooters is a strategy to familiarize people with EVs, which are quieter and come with connectivity and other options lacking in gas or diesel-powered cars.

“It’s like switching from analog phones to smart phones, basically,” she said.

Private car ownership is relatively new for Vietnam’s 97 million people, who mostly rely on the 65 million Honda and Yamaha motorcycles and scooters that dominate the roads.

But with growing affluence, car sales are steadily rising: More than 500,000 cars were sold in 2022, according to the Vietnam Automobile Manufacturers’ Association. That makes Vietnam 24th in terms of vehicles sold. Toyota Motor Corp., Mitsubishi Motor Corp. and Kia dominate the market, and Chinese rivals like BYD are gaining ground.

Vinfast introduced its VF5 Plus SUV for the local market in April. It sells for $22,000. Next year, it plans to launch sales of a “mini” electric vehicle, only 3.1 meters (10.1 feet) long compared with the average 4 meter (13.1 feet) length of most compact cars.

Vinfast announced on October 11 that it was acquiring VinEF, a Vingroup battery company, in a move that it said would cut costs for batteries by 5% to 7%. That would help, Degen of Kelley Blue Book said, but only if it brings prices down significantly.

Ultimately, he said, Vinfast needs a car that can compete with those of its rivals.

“What will they bring to the table that is better than their rivals and that will make consumers want to take a chance on them and give them business instead of the many other terrific offerings from established players?” 
…

Adults over 60 serve in many of the highest offices in the US
…

Matthew Perry, who starred as sarcastic-but-sweet Chandler Bing in the hit series “Friends,” has died. He was 54. 

The Emmy-nominated actor was found dead of an apparent drowning at his home in Los Angeles, California, on Saturday, according to the Los Angeles Times and celebrity website TMZ, which was the first to report the news. Both outlets cited unnamed sources confirming Perry’s death. 

Perry’s publicists and other representatives did not immediately respond to messages from The Associated Press seeking comment. Asked to confirm police response to what was listed as Perry’s home address, LAPD Officer Drake Madison told AP that officers had gone to that block “for a death investigation of a male in his 50s.”   

Perry’s 10 seasons on “Friends” made him one of Hollywood’s most recognizable actors, starring opposite Jennifer Aniston, Courteney Cox, Matt LeBlanc, Lisa Kudrow and David Schwimmer as a friend group in New York. 

As Chandler, he played the quick-witted, insecure and neurotic roommate of LeBlanc’s Joey and a close friend of Schwimmer’s Ross. By the series’ end, Chandler is married to Cox’s Monica and they have a family, reflecting the journey of the core cast from single New Yorkers to married and starting families. 

The series was one of television’s biggest hits and has taken on a new life — and found surprising popularity with younger fans — in recent years on streaming services.

“Friends” ran from 1994 until 2004, and the cast notably banded together for later seasons to obtain a salary of $1 million per episode for each. 

Unknown at the time was the struggle Perry had with addiction and an intense desire to please audiences.   

“‘Friends’ was huge. I couldn’t jeopardize that,” he wrote in his memoir, “Friends, Lovers and the Big Terrible Thing.” “… I loved my co-actors. I loved the scripts. I loved everything about the show but I was struggling with my addictions which only added to my sense of shame. I had a secret and no one could know.” 

“I felt like I was gonna die if the live audience didn’t laugh, and that’s not healthy for sure. But I could sometimes say a line and the audience wouldn’t laugh and I would sweat and sometimes go into convulsions,” Perry wrote. “If I didn’t get the laugh I was supposed to get I would freak out. I felt that every single night. This pressure left me in a bad place. I also knew of the six people making that show, only one of them was sick.” 

An HBO Max reunion special in 2021 was hosted by James Corden and fed into huge interest in seeing the cast together again, although the program consisted of the actors discussing the show and was not a continuation of their characters’ storylines. 

Perry received one Emmy nomination for his “Friends” role and two more for appearances as an associate White House counsel on “The West Wing.” 

Perry also had several notable film roles, starring opposite Salma Hayek in the romantic comedy “Fools Rush In” and Bruce Willis in the the crime comedy “The Whole Nine Yards.” 
…

Jeep maker Stellantis reached a tentative contract agreement with the United Auto Workers union on Saturday. 

The Stellantis deal, which still must be ratified by members, leaves only General Motors without an agreement with the union.  

Later Saturday night, the union walked out at a GM factory in Spring Hill, Tennessee, in an effort to increase pressure on the company to reach a deal. 

The Stellantis deal mirrors one reached earlier this week with Ford. The union says the contract also saves jobs at a factory in Belvidere, Illinois, that Stellantis had planned to close. 

GM said it was disappointed with the additional strike at the Spring Hill assembly and propulsion systems plant “in light of the progress we have made.” The company said in a statement that it has bargained in good faith with the union and wants to reach a deal as soon as possible. 

Spring Hill is GM’s largest manufacturing facility in North America with about 1 million square meters of building space and almost 4,000 employees. It makes the electric Cadillac Lyriq as well as the GMC Acadia and Cadillac XT5 and XT6 crossover SUVs. 

A message was left Saturday night seeking comment from the union. 

‘We have moved mountains’

UAW President Shawn Fain confirmed the Stellantis agreement in a video appearance Saturday evening and said that 43,000 members at the company still have to vote on the deal. 

About 14,000 UAW workers who were on strike at two Stellantis assembly plants in Michigan and Ohio, and several parts distribution centers across the country, were told to drop their picket signs and return to work. The agreement will end a six-week strike at the maker of Jeep and Ram vehicles. 

The pact includes 25% in general wage increases over the next 4½ years for top assembly plant workers, with 11% coming once the deal is ratified. Workers also will get cost-of-living pay that would bring the raises to a compounded 33%, with top assembly plant workers making more than $42 per hour. At Stellantis, top-scale workers now make around $31 per hour. 

Like the Ford contract, the Stellantis deal would run through April 30, 2028. 

Under the deal, the union said it saved jobs in Belvidere as well as at an engine plant in Trenton, Michigan, and a machining factory in Toledo, Ohio. 

“We’ve done the impossible. We have moved mountains. We have reopened an assembly plant that was closed,” Fain said. 

The deal includes a commitment by Stellantis to build a new midsize truck at its factory in Belvidere, Illinois, that was slated to be closed. About 1,200 workers will be hired back, plus another 1,000 workers will be added for a new electric vehicle battery plant, the union said. 

“We’re bringing back both combustion vehicles and electric vehicle jobs to Belvidere,” Fain said. 

Vice President Rich Boyer, who led the Stellantis talks, said the workforce will be doubled at the Toledo, Ohio, machining plant. The union, he said, won $19 billion worth of investment across the U.S. 

Fain said Stellantis had proposed cutting 5,000 U.S. jobs, but the union’s strike changed that to adding 5,000 jobs by the end of the contract. 

In a statement, the UAW said the Stellantis agreement has gains worth more than four times the improvements in the 2019 contract with the UAW. Through April of 2028, a top-scale assembly plant worker’s base wage will increase more than all the increases in the past 22 years. 

Starting wages for new hires will rise 67% including cost-of-living adjustments to more than $30 per hour, the union said. Temporary workers will get raises of more than 165%, while workers at parts centers will get an immediate 76% increase if the contract is ratified. 

Like the Ford agreement, it will take just three years for new workers to get to the top of the assembly pay scale, the union said. 

The union also won the right to strike over plant closures at Stellantis, and it can strike if the company doesn’t meet product and investment commitments, Fain said. 

Workers expected to OK deal

Bruce Baumhower, president of the local union at a large Stellantis Jeep factory in Toledo, Ohio, that has been on strike since September, said he expects workers will vote to approve the deal because of the pay raises above 30% and a large raise immediately. 

The union began targeted strikes against all three automakers on Sept. 15 after its contracts with the companies expired. At the peak, about 46,000 workers were on strike against all three companies, about one-third of the union’s 146,000 members at the Detroit three. 

With the Ford deal, which established the pattern for the other two companies, workers with pensions will see small increases when they retire, and those hired after 2007 with 401(k) plans will get large increases. For the first time, the union will have the right to go on strike over company plans to close factories. Temporary workers also will get large raises, and Ford agreed to shorten to three years the time it takes for new hires to reach the top of the pay scale. 

Other union leaders who followed more aggressive bargaining strategies in recent months have also secured pay hikes and other benefits for their members. Last month, the union representing Hollywood writers called off a nearly five-month strike after scoring some wins in compensation, length of employment, and other areas. 

Outside the Sterling Heights plant, some workers said they looked forward to a ratification vote and going back to work. 

“The tentative agreement is excellent,” said Anthony Collier, 54, of Sterling Heights, Michigan. “We hear that it’s going to be parity, at least, with Ford, so we believe a lot of people are looking forward to signing. Most of us had to dip into savings, get loans. Everybody knows the economy went up on all of us, so it’s a little tight to be out on strike pay.” 
…

Former Vice President Mike Pence on Saturday dropped his bid for the Republican presidential nomination, ending his campaign for the White House after struggling to raise money and gain traction in the polls. 

“It’s become clear to me: This is not my time,” Pence said at the Republican Jewish Coalition’s annual gathering in Las Vegas. “So, after much prayer and deliberation, I have decided to suspend my campaign for president effective today.” 

“We always knew this would be an uphill battle, but I have no regrets,” Pence went on to tell the friendly audience, which reacted with audible surprise to the announcement and gave him multiple standing ovations. 

Race dominated by Trump

Pence is the first major candidate to leave a race that has been dominated by his former boss-turned-rival, Donald Trump, and his struggles underscore just how much Trump has transformed the party. A former vice president would typically be seen as a formidable challenger in any primary, but Pence has struggled to find a base of support. 

Pence did not immediately endorse any of his rivals but continued to echo language he has used to criticize Trump. 

“I urge all my fellow Republicans here, give our country a Republican standard-bearer that will, as Lincoln said, appeal to the better angels of our nature, and not only lead us to victory, but lead our nation with civility,” he said. 

Pence’s decision, more than two months before the Iowa caucuses that he had staked his campaign on, saves him from accumulating additional debt, as well as the embarrassment of potentially failing to qualify for the third Republican primary debate, on Nov. 8 in Miami. 

Traitor or enabler

But his withdrawal is a huge blow for a politician who spent years biding his time as Trump’s most loyal lieutenant, only to be scapegoated during their final days in office when Trump became convinced that Pence somehow had the power to overturn the results of the 2020 election and keep both men in office — a power Pence did not possess. 

While Pence averted a constitutional crisis by rejecting the scheme, he drew Trump’s fury, as well as the wrath of many of Trump’s supporters, who still believe his lies about the election and see Pence as a traitor. 

Among Trump critics, meanwhile, Pence was seen as an enabler who defended the former president at every turn and refused to criticize even Trump’s most indefensible actions time and again. 

As a result, an Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research from August found that the majority of U.S. adults, 57%, viewed Pence negatively, with only 28% having a positive view. 

Betting on Iowa

Throughout his campaign, the former Indiana governor and congressman had insisted that while he was well-known by voters, he was not “known well” and set out to change that with an aggressive schedule that included numerous stops at diners and Pizza Ranch restaurants. 

Pence had been betting on Iowa, a state with a large white Evangelical population that has a long history of elevating religious and socially conservative candidates such as former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee and former Pennsylvania Rick Santorum.  

Pence often campaigned with his wife, Karen, a Christian school teacher, and emphasized his hardline views on issues such as abortion, which he opposes even in cases when a pregnancy is unviable. He repeatedly called on his fellow candidates to support a minimum 15-week national ban, and he pushed to ban drugs used as alternatives to surgical procedures. 

He tried to confront head-on his actions on January 6, 2021, explaining to voters over and over that he had done his constitutional duty that day, knowing full well the political consequences. It was a strategy that aides believed would help defuse the issue and earn Pence the respect of a majority of Republicans, whom they were convinced did not agree with Trump’s actions. 

But even in Iowa, Pence struggled to gain traction. 

Fundraising trouble

He had an equally uphill climb raising money, despite yearslong relationships with donors. Pence ended September with just $1.18 million in the bank and $621,000 in debt, according to his most recent campaign filing. That debt had grown in the weeks since and adding to it would have taken Pence, who is not independently wealthy, years pay off. 

The Associated Press first reported earlier this month that people close to Pence had begun to feel that remaining a candidate risked diminishing his long-term standing in the party, given Trump’s dominating lead in the race for the 2024 nomination. While they said Pence could stick it out until the Jan. 15 Iowa caucuses if he wanted — campaigning on a shoestring budget and accumulating debt — he would have to consider how that might affect his ability to remain a leading voice in the conservative movement, as he hopes. 

Some said that Hamas’ attack on Israel in October, which pushed foreign policy to the forefront of the campaign, had given Pence a renewed sense of purpose given his warnings throughout the campaign against the growing tide of isolationism in the Republican Party. Pence had argued he was the race’s most experienced candidate and decried “voices of appeasement” among Republican, arguing they had emboldened groups such as Hamas. 

But ultimately, Pence concluded he could continue to speak out on the issue without continuing the campaign. He chose the Las Vegas event to announce his decision, in part, so he could address the topic one last time before formally leaving the race. 

He is expected to remain engaged, in part through Advancing American Freedom, the conservative think tank he founded after leaving the vice presidency and that he envisions it as an alternative to the The Heritage Foundation. 

Pence’s group is expected to continue to advocate for policies that he supported in his run, including pushing for more U.S. support for Ukraine’s defense against the Russian invasion and proposed cuts to Social Security and Medicare to rein in the debt. Such ideas were once the bread-and-butter of Republican establishment orthodoxy but have fallen out of a favor as the party has embraced Trump’s isolationist and populist views. 
…

Jeep maker Stellantis has reached a tentative contract agreement with the United Auto Workers union that follows a template set earlier this week by Ford, two people with knowledge of the negotiations said Saturday. 

The deal, which still must be ratified by members, leaves only General Motors without a contract with the union. The agreement could end a six-week strike by more than 14,000 workers at Stellantis assembly plants in Michigan and Ohio, and at parts warehouses across the nation. 

Like workers at Ford, the strikers at Stellantis are expected to take down their picket lines and start returning to work in the coming days, before 43,000 union members vote. 

The people, who asked not to be identified because they are not authorized to speak publicly about the talks, said most of the main points of the deal at Ford will carry over to Stellantis. 

Ford deal details

The Ford pact includes 25% in general wage increases over the next 41/2 years for top assembly plant workers, with 11% coming once the deal is ratified. Workers also will get cost-of-living pay that would bring the raises to more than 30%, with top assembly plant workers making more than $40 per hour. At Stellantis, top-scale workers now make about $31 per hour. 

Like the Ford contract, the Stellantis deal would run through April 30, 2028. 

The deal includes a new vehicle for a now-idled factory in Belvidere, Illinois, which the company had planned to close. 

Bruce Baumhower, president of the local union at a large Stellantis Jeep factory in Toledo, Ohio, that has been on strike since September, said he expects workers will vote to approve the deal because of the pay raises above 30% and a large raise immediately. 

“Eleven percent is right on the hood,” he said. “It’s a historic agreement as far as I’m concerned.” 

Some union members have been complaining that UAW President Shawn Fain promised 40% raises to match what he said was given to company CEOs, but Baumhower said that was Fain’s opening bid. 

“Anybody who knows anything about negotiations, you always start out much higher than you think is realistic to get,” he said. 

‘It’s a good thing’

Jermaine Antwine and other Stellantis workers picketing outside the automaker’s Sterling Heights, Michigan, were excited Saturday after hearing news of a tentative deal. 

“Anytime you reach a tentative agreement, it’s a good thing,” said Antwine, 48, of Pontiac, Michigan. “It shows both sides have come to a mutual agreement somewhere within the numbers they started with.” 

“Ultimately, the numbers they did come to agree with is what the UAW wanted,” said Antwine, who has spent 24 years with the automaker and is a team leader in materials at the Sterling Heights plant. 

Talks were under way with General Motors on Saturday in an effort to reach a similar agreement. More than 14,000 workers at GM remain on strike at factories in Texas, Michigan and Missouri. 

The union began targeted strikes against all three automakers on September 15 after its contracts with the companies expired. 

Intense negotiations, targeted strikes

The union and Stellantis went into intense negotiations on Thursday, the day after the Ford deal was announced, and finalized the agreement on Saturday. 

UAW workers began their targeted strikes with one assembly plant from each company. The strikes were expanded on September 22, adding 38 GM and Stellantis parts warehouses. Assembly plants from Ford and GM were added the week after that, and then the union hit Ford hard, taking down the Kentucky Truck Plant in Louisville, the company’s largest and most profitable factory. 

At the peak, about 46,000 workers were on strike against all three companies, about one-third of the union’s 146,000 members at the Detroit three. Automakers laid off several thousand more as parts shortages cascaded through their manufacturing systems. 

Under the Ford deal, workers with pensions also will see small increases when they retire, and those hired after 2007 with 401(k) plans will get large increases. For the first time, the union will have the right to go on strike over company plans to close factories. Temporary workers also will get large raises, and Ford agreed to shorten to three years the time it takes for new hires to reach the top of the pay scale. 

Union success stories

Other union leaders who followed more aggressive bargaining strategies in recent months have also secured pay hikes and other benefits for their members. Last month, the union representing Hollywood writers called off a nearly five-month strike after scoring some wins in compensation, length of employment and other areas. This summer, the Teamsters also secured new pay hikes and benefits for unionized UPS workers after threatening a nationwide strike at the delivery company. 
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Elon Musk said on Saturday that SpaceX’s Starlink will support communication links in Gaza with “internationally recognized aid organizations.”

A telephone and internet blackout isolated people in the Gaza Strip from the world and from each other on Saturday, with calls to loved ones, ambulances or colleagues elsewhere all but impossible as Israel widened its air and ground assault.

International humanitarian organizations said the blackout, which began on Friday evening, was worsening an already desperate situation by impeding lifesaving operations and preventing them from contacting their staff on the ground.

Following Russia’s February 2022 invasion of Ukraine, Starlink satellites were reported to have been critical to maintaining internet connectivity in some areas despite attempted Russian jamming.

Since then, Musk has said he declined to extend coverage over Russian-occupied Crimea, refusing to allow his satellites to be used for Ukrainian attacks on Russian forces there.
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Editor’s note: Here is a look at immigration-related news around the U.S. this week. Questions? Tips? Comments? Email the VOA immigration team: ImmigrationUnit@voanews.com.

Is There a Path to Refugee Resettlement for Palestinians?

Palestinians are the largest stateless community worldwide, according to the United Nations, and when they become refugees, the way to resettlement in the United States or other countries is not a straightforward journey. Immigration reporter Aline Barros reports.

Canada Admits Nearly 40,000 Afghans, Willing to Take More

Canada is on the brink of fulfilling its commitment to accept 40,000 Afghans before the end of this year. The pledge, made by Ottawa in August 2021 when the Taliban seized power in Afghanistan, was driven by concerns for the safety of Afghans who had collaborated with Canadian programs and the former Afghan government. Story by Akmal Dawi.

Venezuelans Now Largest Group of Illegal US Border Crossers

Venezuelans became the largest nationality arrested for illegally crossing the U.S. border, replacing Mexicans for the first time on record, according to figures released Saturday that show September was the second-highest month for arrests of all nationalities. The Associated Press reports.

US Denies Hamas Eyeing US Southern Border

Fears that Hamas’ deadly terror attack on Israel could help spark a wider conflict or even terror attacks in the United States have yet to materialize into actual threats, according to U.S. officials. But that has not stopped concerns that terror-linked operatives may try to enter the U.S. southern border. VOA National Security Correspondent Jeff Seldin has more.

VOA Day In Photos: Little Amal, a 12-foot-tall puppet depicting a 10-year-old Syrian refugee, plays with Fabian, a Venezuelan migrant boy, during her journey along the U.S.-Mexico border in El Paso, Texas, Oct. 25, 2023.

Immigration around the world

Latin American Leaders Hold Summit on Migration

A dozen Latin leaders gathered on October 22 in Mexico to discuss how to confront complicated and huge illegal migration flows, mostly to the United States. Mexico wants to “combine efforts, will and resources to tackle the causes of the migratory phenomenon,” President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador said on X, formerly Twitter, as the summit got underway. Agence France-Presse reports.

Scores of African Migrants Arrive on Spain’s Canary Islands

Authorities say more than 1,300 sub-Saharan African migrants reached Spain’s Canary Islands, a seven-island Atlantic archipelago, October 21-22. One vessel carried a record 321 people. Another record was set earlier this month when 8,561 migrants arrived on the islands in the first two weeks of October. VOANews has the story.

Cyprus Busts Refugee Trafficking Ring as More Arrive from Mideast

Police in Cyprus on Monday arrested 10 individuals suspected of running a criminal gang trafficking migrants, as the island saw a fresh spike in arrivals over the weekend. Cyprus, which lies at the crossroads of three continents, has seen irregular migration rise since 2017. Cypriot officials have in recent days repeatedly expressed concern that the rapidly deteriorating security situation in the Middle East could lead to a surge in people fleeing the region. Reuters has the story.

Pakistan Moves to Create Deportation Centers as Afghan Migrant Deadline Nears

The Pakistani government approved the creation of several deportation centers for hundreds of thousands of illegally residing Afghan nationals whom they plan to arrest and repatriate to Afghanistan starting next month, Ayaz Gul reports from Islamabad.

News brief

— U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services has provided additional guidance on its interpretation of changes to the EB-5 program in the Immigration and Nationality Act.
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Good Samaritans came across the life raft on Oct. 26, 2023. A second individual who started the journey with the survivor remains missing. The incident remains under investigation.
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Tens of thousands of books are being banned or restricted by U.S. prisons, according to a new report from PEN America. The list includes titles ranging from self-help books to an Elmore Leonard novel.

“The common concept underpinning the censorship we’re seeing is that certain ideas and information are a threat,” said the report’s lead author, Moira Marquis, senior manager in the prison and justice writing department at PEN, the literary and free expression organization.

Timed to the start Wednesday of Prison Banned Books Week, “Reading Between the Bars” draws upon public record requests, calls from PEN to prison mailrooms, dozens of accounts from inmates and PEN’s struggles to distribute its guide for prison writing, “The Sentences That Create Us: Crafting A Writer’s Life in Prison,” which came out last year.

Marquis said that the most common official reasons for bans are security and sexual content, terms that can apply to a very wide range of titles. Michigan’s “restricted” list includes Leonard’s thriller “Cuba Libre,” set right before the 1898 Spanish-American War, and Frederick Forsyth’s “The Day of the Jackal,” about a professional assassin’s attempt to murder French President Charles de Gaulle in the 1960s. Both novels were cited as a “threat to the order/security of institution.”

“One of the books [‘Day of the Jackal’] deals with the planned assassination of a political leader/methods for engaging in such activities and the second [‘Cuba Libre’] deals with an individual engaged in various criminal enterprises,” a spokesman for the Michigan Department of Corrections told The Associated Press in an email. “As part of the updated restricted publication process, a new Literary Review Committee has been formed to review items that were previously placed on the restricted publication list, to determine if they should remain or be removed.”

Amy Schumer’s memoir “The Girl with the Lower Back Tattoo” was flagged by Florida officials for graphic sexual content and for being “a threat to the security, order or rehabilitative objectives of the correctional system or the safety of any person.”

Other books to appear on banned lists: Sun Tzu’s “The Art of War,” the compilation “Prison Ramen: Recipes and Stories from Behind Bars,” Barrington Barber’s “Anyone Can Draw: Create Sensational Artwork in Easy Steps” and Robert Greene’s self-help best-seller “48 Laws of Power.”

“It’s a form of control. It’s the ultimate form of power of manipulation,” Greene said in a statement issued through PEN.

In its report, PEN found parallels between the frequency of prison bans and book bannings in schools and libraries. In Florida, PEN has estimated that more than 40% of all library bans took place in the state in 2022. Meanwhile, the organization found that more than 22,000 books are banned from Florida prisons — the highest of any state — as of early this year, with some entries dating back to the 1990s. Texas, another frequent site of library bannings, had more than 10,000 prison book bans, second only to Florida.

Incidents of banning are likely much higher than what PEN has compiled, according to “Reading Between the Bars,” because record-keeping by many prisons is erratic or nonexistent. Kentucky and New Mexico are among more than 20 states that do not keep centralized records.

“Prison book programs have mostly tried to raise awareness locally when prisons implement new censorship restrictions for communities they serve,” the report reads. “But these programs are largely run by volunteers and struggle to keep up with the demand for books even absent censorship. The upshot is that there have been few nationwide efforts to analyze trends in carceral censorship.”

Marquis says that PEN places bans into two categories: content-specific, in which books are banned because of what they say or allegedly say, and content-neutral, in which books are restricted because they are not sent through accepted channels. In Maine, Michigan and other states, prisoners may only receive books through a select number of vendors, whether Amazon.com, a local bookstore or an approved publisher. In Idaho, Amazon and Barnes & Noble are not among the nine approved sellers, which include Books a Million and the Women’s Prison Book Project.

Content-neutral restrictions may also apply to the packaging (some federal facilities only permit white wrapping, Marquis says), and against free or used literature “because the intended recipient did not receive permission from a warden — or similar administrator — for each specific title mailed to them before the literature arrived,” according to Marquis.

A spokesman for the Idaho Department of Correction told the AP in an email that restrictions on packaging had become necessary because of “an increase in the amount of drug-soaked mail being sent to our residents.” He added that inmates can receive books and periodicals free of charge from authorized vendors and publishers.

“We believe our guidelines are a reasonable response to a growing problem that puts the health and safety of the people who live and work in Idaho’s correctional facilities at risk,” he said.

“Reading Between the Bars” follows a report released late in 2022 by the nonprofit Marshall Project, which found some 50,000 banned prison titles, based on lists made available by 19 states.
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Robert Card, who officials believe to be responsible for the mass shooting in the northern U.S. state of Maine, has been found dead, state officials said Friday. 

Michael Sauschuk, the Maine commissioner of public safety, told a news conference that Card died from an “apparent, self-inflicted gunshot wound.” 

Governor Janet Mills said Card’s body was found in Lisbon Falls, Maine. 

Authorities had been searching for Card in connection with a mass shooting Wednesday at two locations — a bowling alley and a bar and grill — in Lewiston, Maine. He is suspected of having killed 18 people and wounded 13. 

“Robert Card is not a threat to anyone,” Mills said Friday. “Now is a time to heal.” 

Card’s body was found at 7:45 p.m. near the Androscoggin River at a recycling facility, officials said. 

Authorities lifted their shelter in place order for the areas near the shootings Friday evening. 

Card, 40, a U.S. Army reservist, underwent a mental health evaluation in mid-July after he began acting erratically during training, a U.S. official told The Associated Press. 

The names and pictures of the 16 males and 2 females who died were released as State Public Safety Commissioner Mike Sauschuck asked for a moment of silence at the news conference. Their ages ranged from 14 to 76. 

The attacks stunned a state of only 1.3 million people that has one of the country’s lowest homicide rates: 29 killings in all of 2022. The governor said Friday that many Maine residents will know someone who died. 

A motive for the shootings has not been determined.   

Some information for this report came from The Associated Press.  
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