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Haiti Aid Being Delivered by by Sea, Bypassing Gang Violence
World Food Programme scrambles to provide relief through air and sea to earthquake victims as local violence soars
The World Food Programme (WFP) is now using seafaring barges to ship supplies to earthquake victims in southern Haiti, after escalating gang violence made overland journeys unsafe for aid convoys.
Since the 7.2 magnitude earthquake struck the country’s southern peninsula in August, thousands of survivors have been sporadically cut off from Port-au-Prince, the capital, by roadblocks set up by warring gangs, leading relief workers to employ novel workarounds, including shifting aid to barges and helicopter airlifts.
“A recent upsurge in gang violence, including kidnappings, is impacting relief operations,” said Fernando Hiraldo, the acting UN humanitarian coordinator in Haiti on Thursday. “Violence, looting, road blockades and the persistent presence of armed gangs all pose obstacles to humanitarian access, a situation which is further complicated by very serious fuel shortages and the reduced supply of goods.”
The WFP – the world’s largest humanitarian organization – has carried out 18 voyages this month from Port-au-Prince to Miragoane, a coastal commune 62 miles away, bypassing violent neighborhoods on the outskirts of the capital.
From Miragoane, trucks continue by road to Les Cayes, the largest city in the region and a hub for relief efforts. Helicopters also fly twice daily to the region with staff and supplies.
The earthquake leveled many rural villages and hamlets, killing at least 2,200 people and leaving tens of thousands homeless – piling misery on a country already addled with fuel shortages, political turmoil and crippling poverty.
Kidnap of foreign missionaries confirms the power held by gangs in Haiti
Read more
More than 165 criminal gangs currently operate in Haiti, sometimes with tacit political support and often, better armed than the police, turning some neighborhoods into war zones where even police fear entering.
Across the capital, gangs kidnap the rich and poor alike for ransom, and extort business owners with impunity. Gang wars have escalated since president Jovenel Moïse was assassinated in his home in July.
Relief efforts to the south initially stuttered as aid trucks were turned back at roadblocks in the capital, though eventually, some were allowed passage.
In recent weeks, the law and order situation in the capital has deteriorated drastically, culminating in the brazen kidnapping of 17 missionaries on Saturday and a blockade on the road to Les Cayes.
“Growing insecurity is not only hampering the humanitarian response but is creating new humanitarian needs”, Hiraldo said. “Since June, gang violence in the Port-au-Prince area has displaced at least 19,000 people and has affected 1.5 million.”
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WORLD VIEW: Trump Advisor in Contempt of Congress, China Booster Shots, Warhol in Iran, More
Oct 22, 2021
The Associated Press
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The Rundown
WASHINGTON (AP) — The House has voted to hold Steve Bannon, a longtime ally and aide to former President Donald Trump, in contempt of Congress for defying a subpoena from the committee investigating the violent Jan. 6 Capitol…Read More
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BEIJING (AP) — China’s capital Beijing has begun offering booster shots against COVID-19, four months before the city and surrounding regions are to host the Winter Olympics. Anyone 18 or older who have received two-dose Chin…Read More
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WASHINGTON (AP) — Millions more Americans can get a COVID-19 booster and choose a different company’s vaccine for that next shot, federal health officials said Thursday….Read More
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TEHRAN, Iran (AP) — Iranian hard-liners, now back at the helm of the country, may regularly rail against the poisoning of Islamic society by Western culture, but in Tehran, Iranians are flocking to the contemporary art museum…Read More
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SANTA FE, N.M. (AP) — Authorities are investigating after confirming that a prop firearm discharged by actor Alec Baldwin, while producing and starring in a Western movie, killed the cinematographer and wounded the director….Read More
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OTHER TOP STORIES
PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti (AP) — The boss of a notorious Haitian gang accused of kidnapping 17 members of a U.S.-based missionary group last weekend is warning that the hostages …Read More
NIZHNY NOVGOROD, Russia (AP) — As she stood in the courtyard of the morgue holding the body of her grandmother who died of COVID-19, Ramilya Shigalturina had a message for an…Read More
BUNN, N.C. (AP) — A North Carolina town finds itself under siege by buzzards, and nothing the locals do to scare them off seems to work. The buzzards have chosen the town of …Read More
CANBERRA, Australia (AP) — Qantas Airways on Friday brought forward its plans to restart international travel from Sydney as Prime Minister Scott Morrison predicted tourists …Read More
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SKN Offering Coronavirus Tests for Departing Travelers
St. Kitts and Nevis Ministry of Health officials will offer coronavirus Antigen testing to departing travelers whose countries require exit testing prior to their return from international destinations.
The dual-island nation has also removed the exit testing requirements for travelers whose countries of origin do not require return testing. Earlier this month, St. Kitts and Nevis officials narrowed the country’s “Vacation in Place” quarantine requirement for fully vaccinated international travelers from four days to 24 hours.
Exit testing will be performed at visitors’ hotel or resort by a professional from the Ministry of Health 48 to 72 hours prior to the travelers’ departure. Samples will be tested at one of three certified local labs: The Joseph N. France Laboratory; Next Gen Laboratory; Avalon Laboratory and Quality Diagnostics.
Travelers are required to schedule testing through their certified “Travel Approved” hotel or resort concierge, with pricing at $50 to $55 per person, according to St. Kitts and Nevis officials. The Travel Approved-certified hotels for international travelers are: the Four Seasons Resort Nevis, Golden Rock Inn, Marriott Beach Club, Montpelier Plantation & Beach, Paradise Beach, Park Hyatt and Royal St. Kitts Hotel.
Travelers staying in villas, condos or private homes should contact St. Kitts and Nevis’ COVID-19 taskforce hotline by phoning 311 or emailing Co**************@*ov.kn. St. Kitts & Nevis entry protocols require travelers to submit a negative result from an RT-PCR test 72 hours prior to arrival.
Visitors can now explore accommodations, activities and attractions on Nevis via the Nevis Tourism Authority’s revamped website, which features optimized information on hotels and resorts, restaurants and bars, island events and historic and cultural sites and attractions.
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Asylum Seekers Claim Abuse by US Border Agents
Oct 21 (Reuters) – U.S. asylum officers have documented dozens of incidents since 2016 of migrants alleging U.S. border agents physically abused them after they were apprehended at the U.S.-Mexico border, according to records obtained by Human Rights Watch and released Thursday.
The New York-based nonprofit sued for copies of internal reports filed by U.S. asylum officers of alleged misconduct committed by U.S. and Customs and Border Protection (CBP) agents. The records, which also included allegations of verbal abuse and violations of migrants’ legal rights, were heavily redacted but spanned from 2016 to 2021, across three administrations with varied approaches to immigration policy.
Under U.S. immigration law, migrants arrested by border agents are referred for an interview with asylum officers from U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) if they express fear of returning to their home countries. It was during those interviews that migrants brought up descriptions of verbal and physical abuse by U.S. border agents, the records show.
Since the beginning of the coronavirus pandemic, most migrants have been expelled without getting a chance to claim asylum.
A spokesman for the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, which oversees both CBP and USCIS, said that the agency “does not tolerate any form of abuse or misconduct.” Since Biden took office in January, the spokesman said, the agency has begun an internal review of use of force as well as “to identify and terminate intolerable prejudice.”
According to one 2017 internal report, a woman whose nationality is redacted, told an asylum officer that a border patrol agent slammed her to the ground multiple times, drawing blood, and kneed her in the lower pelvis.
Another report describes a migrant’s testimony that he was attacked in June 2018 by a border patrol dog in the California desert, injuring his testicle. He said he was not given treatment for about a month while in custody, the documents showed.
There were multiple internal reports of verbal abuse, including a migrant from Honduras who said border agents: “called us sons of bitches, dogs, parasites, trash.” Another asylum applicant said border agents “told us that we gave birth to rats,” according to the records.
U.S. President Joe Biden, a Democrat, has pledged a more humane approach to immigration policy than his Republican predecessor Donald Trump but advocates have been disappointed at the slow pace of reforms.
CBP has come under more recent criticism for tactics used by border agents on horseback trying to push back crowds of mostly Haitian migrants crossing into south Texas from Mexico in large numbers last month.
At the same time, Republicans have criticized Biden for not doing enough to curb migrant crossings as apprehensions at the southwest border have recently surpassed previous records.
Reporting by Kristina Cooke in San Francisco; Editing by Mica Rosenberg and Aurora Ellis
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Haiti: Gang Leader Threatens to Kill Hostages if Cash Demands Not Met
(CNN) The leader of the gang that kidnapped 17 US and Canadian missionaries in Haiti has threatened to kill them if he doesn’t get what he wants, according to a video released Thursday.
The video appears to show Wilson Joseph — who goes by the alias Lanmò Sanjou, or Death Without Days — speaking at a funeral Wednesday for gang members whom he alleges were killed by police, a Haitian security force source told CNN.
The missionary group, which includes several children, has been held captive since Saturday, kidnapped by the 400 Mawozo gang while traveling by car northeast of capital city Port-au-Prince.
Their captors have demanded $1 million per hostage, according to Haitian Justice and Interior Minister Liszt Quitel.
“We will not comment on the video until those directly involved in obtaining the release of the hostages have determined that comments will not jeopardize the safety and well-being of our staff and family members,” Christian Aid Ministries said Thursday.
Among the kidnapped are an 8-month-old infant, a 3-year-old and a 6-year-old, as well as two young teenagers. All of the group’s members hail from Amish, Mennonite and other conservative Anabaptist communities across six US states and Ontario, said Weston Showalter, an official with the mission organization Christian Aid Ministries.
‘Love your enemies’
The death threat follows the first public statement by the victims’ families, who earlier on Thursday described the kidnapping as a “unique opportunity” to show compassion.
“God has given our loved ones the unique opportunity to live out our Lord’s command to love your enemies, bless them that curse you, do good to them that hate you,” the families said in a message read outside Christian Aid Ministries‘ Ohio headquarters.
Both Haitian police negotiators and the FBI are involved in helping to resolve the kidnapping, and the local government is working tirelessly to find a peaceful solution, Quitel told CNN. But on Thursday, the country’s interim national police chief Leon Charles abruptly resigned.
The incident has focused global attention on an epidemic of gang violence and insecurity in the impoverished Caribbean nation. Kidnappings for ransom in Haiti are widespread and often indiscriminate, targeting rich and poor, young and old.
And at least 782 people were kidnapped in Haiti between the start of the year and October 16, including over 50 foreign nationals, according to the latest estimates by the Port-au-Prince organization Center for Analysis and Research for Human.
At least 30 children have been abducted this year, according to UNICEF, which warned in a statement Thursday that the experience inevitably causes trauma.
“Nowhere is safe for children in Haiti anymore,” said Jean Gough, the children’s agency’s regional director.
“Criminal gangs are using children as bargaining chips and making money off parents’ love for their children,” he also said.
Rising crime in Haiti has accompanied the country’s political instability, with kidnappings spiking in the months after the July assassination of President Jovenel Moise, according to CARDH.
400 Mawozo in particular has become notorious for group kidnappings this year, forcing whole buses off the road, according to CARDH.
Father Michel Briand, a French priest who survived a kidnapping by 400 Mawozo this spring, points to poverty and inequality as drivers of crime in a country where many Haitians live on the equivalent of a few dollars per day.
“The problem in Haiti is that what is abnormal has become normal, that which is illegal has become a part of daily life, and seeds trouble in the country. (The kidnappers) are doing a job. It’s a means of subsistence.”
He and several other priests and nuns were held for more than two weeks in April before being released. He says his captors began to withhold food toward the end, which he believes to have been a pressure tactic.
“If the kidnapped missionaries are together, their captivity will be easier and they can comfort each other. But they must not lose hope. The kidnappers play with time and play on people’s nerves and the nerves of the negotiators,” he said.
Briand, who has lived in Haiti for more than 30 years, also blamed the Haitian government for failing to put a stop to the rash of kidnapping. “Things seem out of their control,” he told CNN. “One day, the whole country will be a hostage.”
There is little doubt about the immense power exerted by well-armed Haitian gangs in the country’s capital. On the same weekend as the missionaries’ kidnapping, security concerns forced Prime Minister Ariel Henry to backtrack on plans to lay a wreath at a memorial to revolutionary leader Jean-Jacques Dessalines in a gang-controlled area of Port-au-Prince.
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Haiti: Nearly 800 Kidnappings So Far this Year-Report
Nearly 800 kidnappings have been reported in Haiti so far this year, a local group says, as gangs expand their control amid political instability.
The Center for Analysis and Research in Human Rights (CARDH) said 119 people were abducted in the first half of this month alone.
People from all walks of life, both local and foreign, have been targeted.
The most recent high-profile case involves 17 missionaries from the US and Canada, kidnapped last weekend.
The security situation in Haiti, which was already precarious, has deteriorated significantly since the assassination of President Jovenel Moïse in July. Rival factions are fighting to gain control of the country in the face of a struggling police force.
“Citizens do not trust the Haitian national police and this poses a problem because we cannot have an efficient police force if the population does not collaborate,” Gedeon Jean, the CARDH director, told AFP news agency.
“According to our statistics, there are at least two policemen in every large armed group: some policemen are active in gangs and others provide cover, allowing gangs to operate, or they share information with them.”
CARDH said at least 782 kidnappings were reported this year to 16 October, compared with 796 cases in the whole of 2020. The actual numbers were likely to be much higher, it said, as many people do not report abductions, fearing retaliation from the gangs.
The rise in violence and a dire economic situation, made worse by several natural disasters in recent years, have led to a growing number of Haitians seek opportunities in other countries.
On Saturday, the missionaries from the Ohio-based Christian Aid Ministries were returning from a visit to an orphanage when their bus was seized by members of the 400 Mazowo gang in Ganthier, a town east of the capital, Port-au-Prince.
Ganthier is located in the Croix-des-Bouquets area which is controlled by the gang. The kidnappers are demanding $1m (£725,000) in ransom for each hostage.
All of those kidnapped are US citizens, except one who is a Canadian national. Among those seized are five men, seven women and five children, the youngest reported to be two years old.
Seizing vehicles and all of their occupants for ransom is one of the main activities the 400 Mazowo uses to finance itself. In April, the gang abducted a group of Catholic clergy, who were later released. It is not clear if a ransom was paid.
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Alec Baldwin Kills Woman, Injures Man When Prop Gun Misfires on Film Set
Cinematographer Halyna Hutchins airlifted to hospital, where she died, while director Joel Souza also injured
Samantha Lock and agencies
Alec Baldwin fired a prop gun on a movie set in an accident that killed the film’s director of photography and injured its director, authorities in New Mexico have said.
A statement from the Santa Fe Sheriff’s office said Baldwin, who is acting in and producing the film Rust, had fired the prop gun in an incident on Thursday.
Deputies were dispatched to the set at about 2pm in Bonanza Creek Ranch when a 911 caller reported a shooting, added the statement.
“The sheriff’s office confirms that two individuals were shot on the set of Rust. Halyna Hutchins, 42, director of photography, and Joel Souza, 48, director, were shot when a prop firearm was discharged by Alec Baldwin, 68, producer and actor,” it said.
“Ms Hutchins was transported, via helicopter, to University of New Mexico hospital where she was pronounced dead by medical personnel. Mr Souza was transported by ambulance to Christus St Vincent regional medical center where he is undergoing treatment for his injuries.”
“This investigation remains open and active. No charges have been filed in regard to this incident.”
Juan Rios, from the sheriff’s office, said: “Mr Baldwin came in voluntarily to speak with investigators and after speaking with them he left.”
A spokesperson for Baldwin said there was an accident on the set involving the misfire of a prop gun with blanks.
The Santa Fe New Mexican reported Baldwin was seen on Thursday outside the sheriff’s office in tears, but attempts to get comment from him were unsuccessful.
“According to investigators, it appears that the scene being filmed involved the use of a prop firearm when it was discharged,” Rios told the Albuquerque Journal. “Detectives are investigating how and what type of projectile was discharged.”
Production has been halted on the film, which was being directed by Souza with Baldwin producing and starring in it.
Hutchins, 42, was director of photography on the 2020 action film Archenemy, starring Joe Manganiello. A 2015 graduate of the American Film Institute, she was named a “rising star” by American Cinematographer in 2019.
“I’m so sad about losing Halyna. And so infuriated that this could happen on a set,” said the Archenemy director, Adam Egypt Mortimer, on Twitter. “She was a brilliant talent who was absolutely committed to art and to film.”
“The details are unclear at this moment, but we are working to learn more, and we support a full investigation into this tragic event,” the International Cinematographers Guild’s president, John Lindley, and executive director Rebecca Rhine said in a statement.
Tributes to Hutchins have poured in over social media.
“I will miss you my friend … this is devastating,” the director James Cullen Bressack wrote under a video that Hutchins had posted two days earlier. At the time she had written: “One of the perks of shooting a western is you get to ride horses on your day off.”
The model Katya Zharkova also said she would miss Hutchins “terribly” while the actor Jeff Daniel Phillips described her death as “an absolute tragedy.”
Filming for Rust was set to continue into early November, according to a news release from the New Mexico Film Office.
The movie is about a 13-year-old boy who is left to fend for himself and his younger brother after the death of their parents in 1880s Kansas, according to the Internet Movie Database website. The teenager goes on the run with his long-estranged grandfather, played by Baldwin, after the boy is sentenced to hang for the accidental killing of a local rancher.
In 1993, Brandon Lee, 28, son of the late martial-arts star Bruce Lee, died after being hit by a .44-caliber slug while filming a death scene for the movie The Crow. The gun was supposed to have fired a blank, but an autopsy turned up a bullet lodged near his spine.
With Associated Press
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Memorial Service Set for Colin Powell at National Cathedral
A memorial service for Colin Powell will be held on Nov. 5 at the Washington National Cathedral, according to a spokesman for the former secretary of State.
The service, set for noon, will have “very limited seating and it will be by invitation only,” Powell spokeswoman Peggy Cifrino told multiple outlets in a written statement.
A nation’s loss: Powell, the first Black secretary of State, Joint Chiefs of Staff chairman and National Security Advisor, died on Monday due to complications from COVID-19. He was 84.
He had been fully vaccinated against the coronavirus but had a history of multiple myeloma, a common blood cancer that weakens the immune system.
Powell’s decorated military career that included two tours in Vietnam led to key military and diplomatic positions throughout Washington, serving under both Democratic and Republican presidents.
He was President Reagan’s National Security Adviser, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff under President George H.W. Bush and President Clinton, and secretary of State during under President George W. Bush.
Other acknowledgements: President Biden also ordered flags at the White House and federal buildings be flown at half-staff until Oct. 22 in honor of Powell.
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US Okays Boosters, India Gives 1B Shots, Russian Surge, World Stats, More
CDC advisory panel unanimously endorses more COVID-19 vaccine boosters
© Getty Images
A Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) advisory panel recommended the agency allow Moderna and Johnson & Johnson coronavirus vaccine booster doses to be administered, the latest step toward expanding access to extra doses nationwide.
The committee backed widening booster accessibility for people who initially received Moderna or Johnson & Johnson after the CDC previously approved the Pfizer-BioNTech booster shots for specific populations.
The panel, in a 15-0 vote, endorsed a third shot for certain populations at least six months after their second dose of an mRNA vaccine, either Moderna or Pfizer-BioNTech. It also unanimously suggested allowing a second dose for all adults who initially received Johnson & Johnson at least two months after their first shot.
What the votes mean: The vote brings recommendations for Moderna recipients in line with those who got the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine and opens up opportunities for Johnson & Johnson recipients to get another shot.
The panel did not take a position on whether any vaccine booster was better, and did not recommend giving people the flexibility to mix and match, after the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) amended its emergency use authorization to permit mix-and-match booster doses. The panel was not able to express a preference for people using a different brand for a booster, but they asked CDC to give more details in clinical guidance. So mixing and matching will be allowed, but there wasn’t an official recommendation.
What’s next: CDC Director Rochelle Walensky will next consider the committee’s suggestions before ruling on these boosters.
If she approves the other two booster populations, about 99 million Americans in total will be considered eligible to get a booster. The director generally goes along with the recommendations, but she overruled aspects of the committee’s decision in a rare departure on the Pfizer booster.
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India: A Billion COVID 19 Shots Given
India has reached a milestone in its COVID-19 vaccination campaign: 1 billion COVID-19 vaccine doses have been administered. Now, half of the country’s nearly 1.4 billion people have received at least one dose of the vaccine, and many of those shots have come in the past few months, following a slow initial roll out. Still, millions of Indians are yet to receive a single dose of the jab.
Russia is another Matter
Meanwhile in Russia, Moscow announced a new set of restrictions that will shut down restaurants, cinemas and non-food stores, as the country hit a new record in the daily numbers of new coronavirus infections and deaths since the start of the pandemic. About 45 million Russians are fully vaccinated in a country with a population of 146 million.
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What you need to know about the coronavirus right now
1/18
Staff members in protective suits check proof of negative test results for travellers at an entrance to the Harbin West Railway Station following new local cases of the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) in Harbin, Heilongjiang province, China September 22, 2021. cnsphoto via REUTERS ATTENTION EDITORS – THIS IMAGE WAS PROVIDED BY A THIRD PARTY. CHINA OUT.
World’s most locked-down city eases pandemic restrictions
Melbourne residents flocked to the city’s pubs, restaurants and hair salons in the early hours of Friday after the world’s most locked-down city emerged from its latest spate of restrictions designed to combat the spread of COVID-19.
People were seen cheering and clapping from their balconies, while cars honked horns continuously at 11:59 p.m. on Thursday when lockdown restrictions in place since early August ended. Many venues, including food outlets and even haircutters, opened at the unusual hour for the occasion. read more
Hong Kong halts cruise to nowhere as COVID-19 suspected in crew member
Hong Kong authorities stopped “Spectrum of the Seas”, a Royal Caribbean cruise ship, from departing its terminal late on Thursday on a “cruise to nowhere”, as a crew member was suspected to have COVID-19 after routine testing, the government and the cruise operator said.
About 1,000 passengers out of a total of 1,200 had already boarded the ship before the four-night trip was cancelled. All have to undergo compulsory testing but were allowed to leave the ship as they did not have direct contact with the crew member. read more
U.S. CDC signs off on vaccine boosters, mix-and-match shots
The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) on Thursday recommended the COVID-19 vaccine boosters for recipients of the Moderna Inc and Johnson & Johnson shots, and said Americans can choose a different shot from their original inoculation as a booster.
The panel struggled with trying to make the language of its recommendations as clear as possible, and also offer flexibility for patients to get a vaccine of their choice.
“A really important aspect of all of this is being clear and not dancing on the head of a pin, so that we don’t further confuse the American people,” said Dr. Beth Bell, a panel member and clinical professor in the department of global health at the University of Washington in Seattle. read more
Thailand to allow quarantine-free travel from 46 countries
Thailand will let vaccinated visitors from 46 countries forgo COVID-19 quarantine from next month, up from 10 previously announced, Prime Minister Prayuth Chan-ocha said on Thursday.
The 46 countries include Britain, the United States, China, Singapore, Germany and Australia, according to the ministry of foreign affairs.
Prayuth said the visitors could skip mandatory quarantine as long as they arrive via air, have been fully vaccinated and have a document to show they are virus-free. read more
New Zealand sets 90% vaccine target for ending lockdown
New Zealand will end its strict lockdown measures and restore more freedoms only when 90% of its eligible population is fully vaccinated, Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern said on Friday. Some 68% of eligible New Zealanders are fully vaccinated and 86% have had one dose.
When the vaccine target is reached, the country will move into a new traffic-light system to manage outbreaks in regions.
Vaccine certificates will be central to the new system, which will also use three settings – green, orange and red – to manage fresh outbreaks and cases, Ardern said. The new system would also mean an end to nationwide lockdowns. read more
Compiled by Karishma Singh; Editing by Himani Sarkar
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WORLD STATS
Highlighted in green
= all cases have recovered from the infection
Highlighted in grey
= all cases have had an outcome (there are no active cases)
Latest News
October 22 (GMT)
Updates
- 12 new deaths in El Salvador [source]
- 398 new cases and 3 new deaths in Uzbekistan [source]
- 125 new cases and 4 new deaths in Kyrgyzstan [source]
- 10 new cases in Antigua and Barbuda [source]
- 83 new cases and 5 new deaths in New Caledonia [source]
- 577 new cases and 4 new deaths in Papua New Guinea [source]
- 1,742 new cases and 32 new deaths in Kazakhstan [source]
- 1,440 new cases and 16 new deaths in South Korea [source]
- 134 new cases in New Zealand [source]
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