news

haiti does little bit prison abolition

Edit: to be slightly less nebulous, from aj

Gangs led by Jimmy Cherizier, a former police officer known as Barbecue, are trying to force Henry from power.

Pierre Esperance of the National Network for Defense of Human Rights said only about 100 of the National Penitentiary’s estimated 3,800 inmates remained inside after the assault on Saturday night.

One voluntary prison worker on Sunday said that 99 prisoners had opted to remain in their cells in the main jail for fear of being killed in the crossfire. These included several retired Colombian soldiers who were jailed for their alleged involvement in the assassination of former President Jovenel Moise.

The prime minister’s exact whereabouts remained unclear on Sunday. Henry had been due to return from a visit to Kenya where he signed a security deal to tackle gang violence.

Nearly 15,000 people have been forced to leave their homes in recent days, with 10 sites hosting internally displaced people emptied over the weekend, according to the UN’s International Organization for Migration (IOM).

Henry, who became prime minister in 2021 after Moise’s assassination, was supposed to step down by early February, but told a regional summit in Guyana before travelling to Kenya that he would only hold elections by August 2025 once the situation was more stable.

The last elections took place in 2016.

Hunter Biden court transcripts

The names of the oversight and accountabilty committee are

Did west and east Europe switch positions on the Ukraine war in the past 2 years? I remember eastern euros being more belligerent in the early days but now they're more critical while the leftoids have gone the other way.

Who are other prominent American geopolitical thinkers who have gone against the neocon approach to ukraine and Russia? Mearshiemer is one, but as I recall he was just one of a handful of senior diplomat types that had different perspectives than the typical Raytheon think tankies. I feel like there were some open letters on this in 2022-2023.

Airdrop of Humanitarian Aid Leaves Five Dead in Gaza

While the genocide continues in Gaza, the U.S., France, and Germany sell weapons to Israel.

On Friday, Gaza Civil Defense Spokesperson Mahmud Basal confirmed that five people died as a result of errors in the airdrop of humanitarian aid packages.

The drop operation proceeded incorrectly in the northwest of Gaza City, where many packages fell on people's heads and on top of homes.

The sending of humanitarian aid by air was initially applied by Jordan, Egypt, the United Arab Emirates and France. Last week, the United States joined the initiative and carried out three launches, each with 38,000 food rations.

During his "State of the Union" speech on Thursday, US President Joe Biden pledged to construct a floating platform off the coast of Gaza for the unloading of aid through a Cyprus-based maritime corridor that will be operational from Sunday.

As expected, the Zionist State has expressed its disagreement with this proposal, alleging concerns about the potential entry of military equipment into Palestinian territory.

Germany, Greece, Italy, the Netherlands, the United Arab Emirates, and the United Kingdom will also participate in the provision of humanitarian aid through this maritime corridor, according to the European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen.

So far Israeli occupation forces have killed over 30,878 Palestinians, 72 percent of whom are women and children. While the massacres continue daily, countries such as the United States, France, and Germany are selling weapons to Israel.

"Since the beginning of Israel's genocide on Gaza on Oct. 7, U.S. President Joe Biden has covertly approved more than 100 weapons sales to Israel," MintPress recalled.

"Only two U.S. military sales to Israel have been publicly disclosed during this period: US$106 million worth of tank ammunition and US$147.5 million of components essential for manufacturing 155 mm shells," it added.

Final moments of Israeli capitives shot by .

It's mostly audio. No bodies shown. Gunfire heard. Shots were controlled, deliberate.

Apparently the NY governor has ordered tbe National Guard to run security checkpoints on the NYC Subway.

https://t.me/PalestineResist/31849

More aid drop parachutes fail injuring civillians on the ground.

New documents have been showing up at the ICJ page for Application of the Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide in the Gaza Strip (South Africa v. Israel):

• 12 February 2024 : Request for additional measures under Article 75(1) of the Rules of Court submitted by South Africa

• 15 February 2024 : Observations of the State of Israel on the request for additional measures under Article 75 (1) of the Rules of Court

• 16 February 2024: Application of the Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide in the Gaza Strip (South Africa v. Israel) - Decision of the Court on South Africa’s request for additional provisional measures

• 6 March 2024: Request for the indication of provisional measures and modification of the Court's prior provisional measures decisions

I do not know what to make of them. Is there coverage of this?

AP - Poland’s foreign minister says the presence of NATO troops in Ukraine is ‘not unthinkable’ [09/03/2024]

Poland’s foreign minister says the presence of NATO forces “is not unthinkable” and that he appreciates the French president for not ruling out that idea. Radek Sikorski made the observation during a discussion marking the 25th anniversary of Poland’s accession to NATO in the Polish parliament Friday, and the Foreign Ministry tweeted the comments later in English.

RTÉ.ie - We live in pre-war times, Tusk tells EPP delegates [07/03/2024]

Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk has told delegates at a congress of the centre-right European People's Party (EPP) that "we are living in new times, in a pre-war epoch". Speaking in Bucharest, Romania, and referencing the war in Ukraine, Mr Tusk said that "the times of blissful calm are over" and that the "post-war epoch is gone".

The event culminated in the election of European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen as the party’s lead nominee to retain the Commission's top job. As the EPP’s only candidate for the nomination, Ms von der Leyen was elected by 400 votes to 89.

TVP.info - Will Russia attack Poland? Almost half of the Polish people think so [04/03/2024]

Ipsos asked Polish people if they think Russia will attack Poland militarily in the coming years. As the TOK FM portal explains, the answer "definitely yes" was given by 12% of respondents, and the answer "rather yes" by 36%. A total of 48%.

32% of respondents believe that Russia will "rather not" attack Poland militarily, and 9% are of the "definitely not" opinion – a total of 41%. 11% of respondents have no opinion on the matter.

The study was conducted using the Mixed mode method on a nationwide sample of n=1000 adult Polish people on February 22-26, 2024.

Global protected area policies sparks conflicts with Mexico Indigenous groups

The creation of the UNESCO-listed Calakmul Biosphere Reserve in Mexico’s Campeche region has led to a long-standing conflict with Indigenous residents who argue the government restricted their livelihoods, despite promises of support and land titles by Mexico’s Secretariat of Environment and Natural Resources (SEMARNAT).

Culture and conservation thrive as Great Lakes tribes bring back native wild rice

Wild rice or manoomin is an ecologically important and culturally revered wetland species native to the Great Lakes region of the United States and Canada, which once covered thousands of acres and was a staple for Indigenous peoples.

In recent years, native tribes and First Nations, working with federal and state agencies, scientists and funding initiatives, have led wild rice restoration programs that have successfully revived the species in parts of the region and paved the way for education and outreach.

Large explosions in Detroit: https://twitter.com/TheWapplehouse/status/1764870864317600245

Ships Hit The Fan: Denmark's Arctic Command Crippled By Suspicious Technical Issues

WESTERN MILITARY EXCELLENCE – Danish government broadcaster DR reports that two patrol vessels of the Knud Rasmussen class has been grounded due to mysterious technical issues. The ships that were intended to be the backbone of NATO pact power projection in the region now lay dormant in the harbour of Nuuk, the capital city of Greenland, part of the Danish colonial empire.

One of the ships has been incapacitated since February 1st due to a malfunction in the auxiliary engines. Danish naval authorities claims that their engineers has been unable to explain the malfunctions or to repair the engines, laying bare the inherent inefficiency of the capitalist system and hinting at deep-seated systemic decay in the American satellite state's military. The persistent and seemingly inexplicable technical problems has prompted naval authorities to ground all ships of the class until the issue has been resolved.

To compound matters, a run-down 40-year-old vessel dispatched from Denmark as a temporary stopgap measure frequently succumbs to technical issues of its own, further exposing the NATO pact's technological shortcomings. With only small boats unfit for rough seas and helicopters with limited range at their disposal, the Arctic Command now finds traditional Inuit dog sleds to be their only reliable transportation.

The crippling of the Arctic Command has turned Danish military planners paranoid that their inability to patrol the Arctic will enable infiltration by their Russian counterparts to go unnoticed.

The Knud Rasmussen ships gained notoriety earlier this year when it was exposed that they had been operating for years without having the fire control system necessary to aim their guns installed, owing to mismanagement by the Liberal Party-controlled ministry of defense. News reports have also indicated that staffing issues often makes the Danish navy incapable of manning the guns of their vessels or operating patrol vessels at night.

True to their form, Danish government media has seized the opportunity to use the reports on naval incompetence and mismanagement as a means to drum up support for the social democratic-led right-wing regime's grandiose plans of rapid military buildup at the expense of regional stability and essential social services for the Danish people. The dilapidated state of the navy is presented as compelling evidence for the urgency and necessity of increased naval spending.

On the economy

https://sputnikglobe.com/20240306/israel-goes-on-first-bond-sale-spree-since-hamas-war-1117158909.html

Here's a basic question that somehow still doesn't have a satisfactory answer: What is the Chinese public reaction to the anti-China blitz in the west during the last five years?

No seriously I cannot find an answer to this rudimentary question anywhere in English-based media

This spring was meant to bring a flowering of climate action by President Joe Biden’s administration. But the heat of the 2024 political season has scorched some of its most ambitious plans.

Facing pushback from political allies and vulnerable Senate Democrats, as well as the growing risk of reversal by a future Republican Congress, the Biden administration has abandoned some of the most controversial elements of its climate agenda. Instead, over the coming weeks, federal agencies are set to finalize some long-awaited climate regulations in much weakened form:

U.S. companies will be forced for the first time to disclose climate-related risks to investors, under rules that Wall Street’s top regulator is expected to approve Wednesday. But the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) is expected to drop its original plan to make businesses include climate-related perils up and down their supply chains.

The U.S. power industry will be required to rein in emissions from coal plants, as the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) revives an effort begun nearly a decade ago. But the EPA said it will delay action on the more than 2,000 existing natural gas plants that are now responsible for 43 percent of the sector’s greenhouse gas pollution.

Automakers will face new tailpipe emissions standards designed to drive an industry transition to electric vehicles. But reports indicate that the EPA will slow the implementation of the new rules, delaying a sharp ramp-up in EVs until after 2030.

Deeply unserious. Further down the article:

...The Biden team faces a more immediate deadline, thanks to the legacy of Newt Gingrich and his stint as House Speaker. The Congressional Review Act, passed as part of Gingrich’s 1996 Contract With America legislative package, provides Congress with a relatively easy path for overturning any regulation finalized within the last 60 working days of the previous Congress. All that is required is a simple majority, as long as the president agrees with the decision.

In practice, the law is only salient when an opposing party gains control of both Congress and the White House after an election. And for its first 20 years, the Congressional Review Act was only used once—in 2001, when the Republican Congress that swept in with President George W. Bush voted to kill the workplace ergonomic rules that were finalized late in President Bill Clinton’s administration.

Then came Trump. He signed off on Congressional kills of 16 regulations finalized in Obama’s final year in office.

A sole Republican in Congress—the late Sen. John McCain—saved Obama’s methane rules from the Congressional Review Act hammer. (He did the same with Obamacare.) That would have been a devastating blow to climate action efforts, since the Congressional Review Act essentially prohibits any future administration from resurrecting any rule the CRA kills.

Trump eventually did rescind Obama’s methane rules, along with about 100 other environmental regulations. But within months of Biden’s election, the Democratic-controlled Congress rescinded Trump’s rescission of the methane rules; it was one of three Trump actions lawmakers killed using the CRA. Since then, Biden has sought to strengthen the methane rules and others he has revived from Obama’s original climate plan, including rules on power plants and passenger vehicle tailpipe emissions.

Climate change really does reveal to what degree "liberal democracy" and things like term limits are unworkable in crises that cannot be solved without impacting capitalist profit-making. The Chinese democratic system is infinitely superior as you don't have to put so much effort into this back-and-forth bullshit between parties.

ROOSTERTEETH IS DEAD 🐓🦷

https://deadline.com/2024/03/rooster-teeth-shut-down-warner-bros-discovery-roost-podcast-continue-1235847264/

Right before the release of the Red vs Blue finale

All series i.e Red vs Blue RWBY cancelled, everything except podcasts 🧐

It would be incredible if people here who can read and write in French and English could translating pro-AES (Alliance of Sahel States) newspaper articles and government statements from Niger, Burkina Faso, and Mali into English.

Such news outlets must exist, but might require some investigation 🕵‍♀️

If you're good at it you could even submit those translations to RT or Sputnik or Al Mayadeen and participate in the global anti-imperialist information war on the side of the people, elevating pro-resistance news media across language barriers

This one's a real comedy of errors.

Haiti's Prime Minister, Ariel Henry, went to Kenya on March 2nd to beg them to hurry the police squadron over to Haiti like they promised. The problem is that Kenya's highest court found that this deal was unlawful, so I'm not entirely sure if they're just gonna ignore that and send them anyway or not, but regardless.

Henry couldn't immediately return to Port-au-Prince because there's been gunfire at their airport. This gunfire didn't really do any damage but I don't think it was mean to - it feels instead like a warning shot to Henry. Due to this, Henry asked the US to provide him a military plane and soldiers so he can return to Haiti. The US has, hilariously, denied him this request, due to some nonsense about not wanting to put US soldiers in Haiti, as if that's ever stopped them.

Henry then decided that he would just land in the Dominican Republic and cross the border from there, boarding a private jet to Santo Domingo for nearly $60,000. The got three hours into the four-hour flight but were then told by air traffic controllers that they did not have permission to land in the country, meaning they instead had to land in Puerto Rico.

At this point, the Haitian people are absolutely aware of the issue that Henry is having getting back into his country and are orienting their strategy around it, creating a new slogan which translates to "Out, Out for Good". Now, a local leader (they call him a "gang leader" which idk how much stock to put into), Jimmy Cherizier, has said that Haiti will be plunged into civil war and even genocide unless Henry resigns. Thousands of inmates from prisons have been freed recently by fighters and the entire country basically continues to descend into (very potentially revolutionary) mayhem.

The US just got caught in a little bind where they said that they want Henry to "expedite the transition to an empowered and inclusive governance structure that will help prepare for a multinational security support mission and pave the way for free and fair elections", which rapidly spread throughout Haiti as essentially "The US is pressuring Henry to resign." The US then had to come out and say "No, we aren't pressuring him to resign."

China Enhances it's Role in the UN

Pakistan's democracy hanging by a thread

More on the Pakistani elections.

Shehbaz Sharif was sworn in as Pakistan's new prime minister Sunday amid a swirl of accusations that his party, in concert with the Pakistani military, rigged the elections.

Earlier this month, voters in Pakistan woke up to what initially appeared to be an overwhelming victory to former Prime Minister Imran Khan’s party, Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI), and a strong rebuke to the powerful military-backed government in the country’s parliamentary elections. Instead, the election was ultimately called for the military's preferred candidate, Sharif, of the conservative Pakistan Muslim League Nawaz (PML-N) party.

Early results, broadcast widely by the Pakistani media, had shown a landslide victory for PTI. After the election was called for Sharif's party, nonpartisan observers like the Free and Fair Election Network (FAFEN) found that there were election law violations at over two-thirds of polling sites, which almost certainly helped change the outcomes.

This was in addition to unprecedented efforts by the Pakistani military to discourage voter turnout and intimidate candidates running with the populist PTI, including forcing PTI-aligned candidates to run as independents, banning the PTI’s iconic cricket bat symbol from the ballot in a country where a significant number of illiterate voters rely on those symbols to identify candidates, and widespread mobile outages.

Late in the evening of the election, after an unusual gap in media coverage, constituencies where televised results and hard documentation (known as “Form 45s”) had shown PTI-backed candidates with commanding leads were suddenly showing “official” results in which PML-N candidates had surged to improbable leads, in some cases with PTI-backed candidates losing votes.

A high-ranking elections official in Rawalpindi, a city housing the military headquarters abutting the capital Islamabad, later confessed to flipping 13 constituencies against PTI-aligned candidates and accused the Election Commission of Pakistan and military leadership of orchestrating electoral theft.

In spite of these efforts to ostensibly skew the results in the PMLN’s favor, official results still showed the PTI with 93-seat plurality, eclipsing the PMLN’s 75 seats. But reducing the potentially-enormous PTI mandate into a bare plurality left the party incapable of overcoming a coalition of the PMLN and the PPP — Pakistan’s other dynastic political party — and forming a government.

I honestly find it pretty funny that US elected officials are trying to be like "Oh no, we should encourage democracy in Pakistan and oppose this tampering!" as if the US weren't the ones who created this situation and locked up Imran Khan in the first place. I assume these people are gonna get a knock on their door by the deep state and they'll fall silent pretty quickly.