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‘They tried to murder everyone’: Haiti reels after deadly gang attack

‘They tried to murder everyone’: Haiti reels after deadly gang attack

More than 6,200 people are staying with relatives or in makeshift shelters after massacre in central Haiti town. Survivors of a deadly gang attack in central Haiti last week have described waking up to gunfire and walking for hours in search of safety, as the country continues to grapple in the aftermath of the assault that killed at least 70 people. Dozens of Gran Grif gang members armed with knives and assault rifles killed infants, women, the elderly and entire families in their attack last Thursday on Pont-Sonde, about 100km (62 miles) northwest of Port-au-Prince in the Artibonite region. “They tried to murder everyone,” Jina Joseph, a survivor, told The Associated Press news agency. Jameson Fermilus, who had crouched in a corridor next to his house as smoke and gunfire filled the air, was among thousands of survivors who walked for hours, looking for safety. “We don’t know what we are going to do,” said another resident who joined them, 60-year-old Sonise Morino. “We have nowhere to go.” The massacre has underscored the deadly violence and instability gripping Haiti, where powerful armed groups have carried out attacks and kidnappings across the capital of Port-au-Prince and in other parts of the country. The International Organization for Migration (IOM) said at least 6,270 people were displaced in the attack on Pont-Sonde. The vast majority have sought refuge with relatives and friends in nearby communities. Others with nowhere to go have crowded into a church, a school and a public plaza shaded by trees in the coastal city of Saint-Marc. “These deaths are unimaginable,” Mayor Myriam Fievre said as she met with survivors. The attack – retribution for self-defence groups trying to stop the gang from erecting a toll on a nearby road – was the largest massacre in central Haiti in recent years. It came just days after the United Nations reported that at least 3,661 people had been killed in Haiti in the first half of 2024 amid the “senseless” gang violence that has engulfed the country. “To those who sow terror, I say this: You will not break our will,” Haiti’s interim Prime Minister Garry Conille said in a statement following the Pont-Sonde attack. “You will not subjugate this people who have always fought for their dignity and freedom. We will never abandon our right to live in peace, security and justice.” More than 6,000 people have been displaced following armed attacks in Pont-Sondé, a locality in Haiti situated in the commune of Saint-Marc, in the Artibonite department. The majority have taken shelter with relatives in nearby localities. 👉 https://t.co/oBLDDVMoWI pic.twitter.com/AhA3d8iW0H — IOM Haiti (@IOMHaiti) October 5, 2024 Yet, despite the defiant rhetoric, Conille late last month acknowledged that Haiti was “nowhere near winning” the battle against the gangs. The UN Security Council recently extended the mandate of a Kenya-led policing mission meant to help restore security in the Caribbean nation, but the force has struggled to wrest control from the gangs. Funding for the deployment – formally known as the Multinational Security Support Mission (MSS) – has lagged, and a UN expert said last month that the force remains under-resourced. Conille has travelled to Kenya and the United Arab Emirates this week to push for additional help. Adblock test (Why?)

Russia-Ukraine war: List of key events, day 956

Russia-Ukraine war: List of key events, day 956

As the war enters its 956th day, these are the main developments. Here is the situation on Tuesday, October 8, 2024. Fighting At least one person was killed and six injured in Russian shelling in the eastern Ukrainian city of Sloviansk. Vadym Filashkin, the governor of the Donetsk region, said six multistorey apartment blocks were among the buildings damaged and that two children were among the injured. One Ukrainian port worker was killed and five other people injured, including foreign nationals, after a Russian missile struck a Palau-flagged ship in Ukraine’s southern port of Odesa, in the second such attack in as many days. Ukrainian Minister for Foreign Affairs Andrii Sybiha condemned the attacks on the two ships. Ukraine’s Ministry for Restoration said the ship attacked on Sunday was the Saint Kitts and Nevis-flagged Paresa, which had a cargo of 6,000 tonnes of corn. Russia’s Ministry of Defense claimed its forces captured the village of Hrodivka, close to the strategically important city of Pokrovsk in eastern Ukraine. Ukraine said its forces struck an oil terminal on the Crimean Peninsula, which was seized and illegally annexed by Moscow in 2014. Russian-installed authorities in Crimea said there had been a fire at an oil depot in the Black Sea port town of Feodosia and there were no casualties. The GRU, Ukraine’s military spy agency, said it “seriously damaged” the Alexander Obukhov, an Alexandrit-class Russian minesweeping vessel, in Russia’s Kaliningrad region in a sabotage operation. There was no immediate comment from Russia. Ukraine said a Russian hypersonic missile struck the “area” of Ukraine’s major Starokostiantyniv airbase on Monday morning. The air force did not say whether the attack caused any damage. Local governor, Serhii Tyurin, said there were no civilian casualties or damage to critical infrastructure. Two Russian Kinzhal missiles were also shot down in the Kyiv region, the Ukrainian air force said. Debris came down in three districts of the capital, but no major damage or casualties were reported. Ukrainian air defences shot down 32 Russian drones and a further 37 were lost on military radars, suggesting they had been disabled by electronic warfare systems, the air force said. Politics and diplomacy Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said the war had entered “a very important phase” and that Ukraine needed to “put pressure on Russia in the way that’s necessary for Russia to realise that the war will gain them nothing”. Speaking in a video statement, Zelenskyy added: “Only through strength can we bring peace closer”. The United States criticised Russia for withholding consular access for detained US citizen Stephen Hubbard after a court jailed the 72-year-old for six years and 10 months. Russia detained Hubbard in April 2022 and accused of being a “mercenary” for Ukraine. A court in Russia’s Kursk region ordered the arrest in absentia of two Italian journalists for reporting from the Ukrainian-occupied part of Kursk. The court demanded Simone Traini and Stefania Battistini, journalists from Italy’s RAI public broadcaster, be extradited for “illegally crossing” the border from Ukraine. A Ukrainian government source told the Reuters news agency that Ukrainian hackers were behind a large-scale cyberattack on Russian state media company VGTRK on Monday. Adblock test (Why?)

Russian court jails US citizen for nearly seven years on ‘mercenary’ charge

Russian court jails US citizen for nearly seven years on ‘mercenary’ charge

Stephen Hubbard, 72, was detained in eastern Ukraine in April 2022 and accused of fighting for Ukraine. A Russian court has jailed a United States citizen for six years and 10 months after convicting him in a closed-door trial of fighting for Ukraine as a mercenary. Investigators said Stephen Hubbard, who is originally from the US state of Michigan, was paid $1,000 a month to serve in a Ukrainian territorial defence unit in the eastern city of Izyum, where he had been living since 2014. They alleged the 72-year-old signed up in February 2022, just before Russia launched its full-scale invasion, and was provided with training, weapons and ammunition. Hubbard was detained by Russian soldiers two months later. Hubbard’s case first became public late last month when his trial began and he entered a guilty plea. At a hearing last week, the court granted the prosecutors’ request for the proceedings to be held in secret without the media. Hubbard, who was handcuffed, shuffled slowly into the Moscow City Court and stood with difficulty as Judge Alexandra Kovalevskaya read out the sentence, according to journalists from the Reuters and AFP news agencies who were in the court. Russia’s state news agency RIA reported that Hubbard’s lawyer planned to lodge an appeal. US State Department spokesperson Matthew Miller said that Washington had limited information about the case because Russia had refused to grant consular access to Hubbard. He confirmed that Hubbard had been arrested two years ago in Ukraine. “We’re disappointed, as we often are, when they refuse to grant consular access,” Miller told reporters in Washington. “They have an obligation to provide it and we’re going to continue to press for it. We’re looking at the case very closely and considering our next steps.” Hubbard’s sister Patricia Hubbard Fox and another relative have cast doubt on his reported confession, telling Reuters he held pro-Russian views and was unlikely to have taken up arms given his age. In interviews, Fox and the other relative portrayed Hubbard as an isolated figure who had grown estranged from some family members during decades abroad teaching English, including in Japan and Cyprus. Fox said Hubbard moved to Ukraine in 2014 and lived there for a time with a Ukrainian woman, surviving off a small pension of about $300 a month. He never learned Russian or Ukrainian, she said. Hubbard is one of at least 10 Americans behind bars in Russia, nearly two months after a prisoner swap between Moscow and the West freed three Americans, including Wall Street Journal reporter Evan Gershkovich, and dozens of others. Adblock test (Why?)

Chicago mayor compares viewpoint of those who disagree with him about school spending to slavery

Chicago mayor compares viewpoint of those who disagree with him about school spending to slavery

Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson, on Monday, compared the viewpoint of his critics who oppose school spending to that of the confederacy when it came to freeing slaves. “When our people wanted to be liberated and emancipated in this country, the argument was, ‘you can’t free Black people because it would be too expensive,’” Johnson said. “They said it would be fiscally irresponsible for this country to liberate Black people.” During a press conference at a South Side church on Monday, Johnson touted that when he ran for mayor, he promised to transform the city’s public education system. ENTIRE CHICAGO SCHOOL BOARD TO RESIGN OVER TEACHERS UNION DISPUTE WITH DEM MAYOR: ‘DEEPLY ALARMING’ “I’m a man of my word, and that means bold leadership in a moment that doesn’t nibble around the edges and look for incremental gain,” he said. “Our people in this city are tired of political leaders that want the status quo to nibble around the edges, and then when children don’t get what they deserve, they blame the very communities that they’ve divested in. Not on my watch.” Johnson said the status quo and mistakes of the past that left students behind are not going to continue. “And then the so-called experts, the so-called fiscally responsible stewards are making the same argument. When our people wanted to be liberated and emancipated in this country, the argument was, ‘you can’t free Black people because it would be too expensive,’” Johnson said. “They said it would be fiscally irresponsible for this country to liberate Black people. “And now you have detractors making the same argument of the confederacy when it comes to public education in this system,” he added. “These are the people who package these gimmicks, lied to our people, stole money from our people, refuse to pay into the pension system, left the taxpayers with the bill, and for me to fix it.” CHICAGO SCHOOL BOARD APPROVES MEASURE TO DO AWAY WITH ‘RANKING’ SCHOOLS AFTER ‘LONGSTANDING STRUCTURAL RACISM’  Johnson vowed to build a world-class school district rather than leave students behind and fire teachers and staff. “The city leaders have long resisted investing in our children. I am no longer going to accept the status quo,” he said. “We have schools right now who do not have dollars for buses to take their kids to sporting events. We have a system right now that can’t adequately bus children to the very spaces that they say they believe in, and so that is why I was elected to fight and fight.” During the press conference, Johnson introduced six new nominees for the school board, noting he would name a seventh at a later date. STUDENTS LEFT BEHIND AS CHICAGO HIGH SCHOOL SUFFERS FROM STAFFING ISSUES, TEACHER ABSENCES: REPORT  The mayor referred to his six new school board nominees as members, though he said they are still being vetted as a formality. Once the vetting is complete, Johnson’s nominees could remain on the board when it triples in size in January and changes to more of a hybrid model that includes 11 mayoral appointees and 10 elected members. “I’m confident that these new candidates will work to lead CPS into the world-class school system that our children deserve,” Johnson said, referring to Chicago Public Schools. “I will continue to nominate Chicagoans who are dedicated to meeting the needs of our students.” Johnson has tried to oust the district’s CEO, Pedro Martinez, who was named to his position in 2021 by Johnson’s predecessor, then-Mayor Lori Lightfoot. As a former Chicago Teachers Union organizer, Johnson has clashed with Martinez over the best way to close gaps in the district’s nearly $10 billion budget. Martinez has refused to resign from his post, saying the district needs stability. On Friday, all seven board members announced they would resign from their posts by the end of the month. Johnson handpicked all the outgoing members in 2023, just months after he took office. The Associated Press contributed to this report.

Harris said candidates must ‘earn’ voter support — despite skipping primaries before becoming Dem nominee

Harris said candidates must ‘earn’ voter support — despite skipping primaries before becoming Dem nominee

Vice President Kamala Harris said political candidates should have to “earn” support from voters, despite previous criticism for becoming the Democratic presidential nominee without having to run in any primary election in 2024.  Harris was asked about why voters still have reservations about her during a “60 Minutes” interview that aired Monday night.  “A quarter of registered voters still say they don’t know you, they don’t know what makes you tick,” “60 Minutes,” journalist Bill Whitaker asked during a sitdown interview. “Why do you think that is? What’s the disconnect?” BILL MAHER TRASHES KAMALA HARRIS FOR BEING ‘FULL OF S—‘ ON ISRAEL, MIDDLE EAST: ‘JUST SHUT UP’ “It’s an election Bill, and I take it seriously that I have to earn everyone’s vote,” Harris replied. “This is an election for President of the United States. No one should be able to take for granted that they can just declare themselves a candidate and automatically receive support.” “You have to earn it and that’s what I intend to do,” she added.  The Democratic Party has been accused by critics of anointing Harris as the party’s nominee after Biden abruptly ended his re-election bid following his first debate against former President Trump.  Many Republicans and groups like Black Lives Matter accused the Democratic Party of installing Harris as its nominee and sidestepping the voting process. The Democratic Party coalesced around her, winning enough delegate support to secure the nomination at the Democratic National Convention in August.  In response to the criticism, former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said the party’s presidential nominating process was “open,” and Harris “won it,” despite the absence of any such contest.