It’s possible that I shall make an ass of myself. But in that case one can always get out of it with a little dialectic. I have, of course, so worded my proposition as to be right either way (K.Marx, Letter to F.Engels on the Indian Mutiny)
Sunday, March 31, 2024
Sen. Rev. Raphael Warnock slams Trump for selling Bibles
Summer Concepcion Sun, March 31, 2024
Sen. Raphael Warnock, D-Ga., on Sunday excoriated former President Donald Trump over the $60 Bibles he is selling in partnership with country music star Lee Greenwood.
Warnock, who serves as senior pastor at Ebenezer Baptist Church in Atlanta, condemned Trump for selling the Christian holy text at a high price during an interview on CNN.
“The Bible does not need Donald Trump’s endorsement, and Jesus, in the very last week of his life, chased the money changers out of the temple, those who would take sacred things and use them as cheap relics to be sold in the marketplace,” he said. “The sad thing is that none of us are surprised by this — this is what we expect from the former president.”
Warnock pointed to Trump’s failed business ventures including steaks and the defunct Trump University, both of which have faced legal repercussions.
“If he’s not selling us steaks, he’s selling us a school whose degree is not worth the paper that is written on it. If he’s not selling us a school, he’s selling us sneakers, and now he’s trying to sell the scriptures,” he said.
The Georgia Democrat argued that Trump selling pricey Bibles is a “risky bet” because the text conflicts with the former president's conduct.
“Donald Trump is doing what he’s always done, and this time it’s a risky bet because the folks who buy those Bibles might actually open them up, where it says things like, ‘Thou shalt not lie. Thou shalt not bear false witness,’ where it warns about wolves dressed up in sheep’s clothing,” he added. “I think you ought to be careful. This is risky business for somebody like Donald Trump.”
The Trump campaign did not immediately respond to NBC News' request for comment when asked about Warnock’s remarks.
Trump began promoting the Bibles during Holy Week, the days leading up to Easter and a sacred time for many Christians. In a video promoting the Bibles posted to his Truth Social platform, Trump said that the holy text is “my favorite book” and warned that “religion and Christianity are the biggest things missing from this country, and I truly believe that we need to bring them back.”
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OOPS
Iran's ambassador to Azerbaijan dismissed after interview with unveiled reporter
Abbas Mousavi criticised for speaking with a woman not wearing the hijab
Iran's envoy to Azerbaijan, Abbas Mousavi, with Baku TV journalist Sevinc Gulmammadova. Baku TV
Iran's ambassador to Azerbaijan has reportedly been dismissed from his role after an interview with a female reporter who appeared without her hijab.
Abbas Mousavi, who previously served as spokesman for Iran's Foreign Ministry, will be replaced by a new envoy to Baku, state outlet IRNA and Tasnim News, affiliated with the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), reported at the weekend.
It comes after Tasnim posted a scathing critique of Mr Mousavi following an interview with an Azeri journalist for Baku TV, criticizing the envoy for speaking with a woman not wearing the hijab.
The interview was held in Iran's embassy in Azerbaijan, according to Tasnim, which criticised the Baku TV reporter for her clothing and not wearing the hijab, which, although mandatory in Iran, is not required in public in Azerbaijan.
While state outlets did not confirm his replacement was due to the interview, official media has called for his resignation in the two weeks since the interview was aired.
“Unfortunately, the Iranian ambassador did not react to this insult,” Tasnim said, adding he did not give a “dignified response” to the reporter's placement of an Azeri flag on the table between them.
“A reporter of a country is not considered an official official of that country … carrying out such acts as a journalist is a kind of insult to the Iranian official in that country,” it claimed.
“Mr Mousavi … showed in his interview that he may not be able to properly defend the positions of the Islamic Republic of Iran, we hope will give his place to another person who is free from these mistakes,” it added.
Journalist Sevinc Gulmammadova acknowledged the backlash the interview created, saying it has “caused a lot of noise” online.
The National has reached out to Ms Gulmammadova for comment.
Iran has forced women to adhere to a strict dress code in public since the Islamic Revolution in 1979 and enforces an array of harsh laws on women through the so-called morality police.
Tehran has only tightened restrictions on women since the widespread Mahsa Amini protests, following the death of the young Kurdish woman in morality police custody.
It passed a law punishing women who do not wear the hijab with up to 10 years in prison, with the UN saying it may amount to gender apartheid.
In October, a teenager died after being beaten by morality police for not wearing a hijab on Tehran's metro.
Officials also try to impose the same dress code when meeting with women abroad.
In September, Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi cancelled an interview with CNN after journalist Christiane Amanpour refused to wear the hijab.
Female athletes representing Iran abroad have also been reprimanded and threatened with jail for competing without the hijab.
In 2022, climber Elnaz Rekabi was forced to apologise for competing without a headscarf in South Korea, the BBC reported, and was later reported missing before returning to Iran, where she received public approval for her decision.
Dealing with Issues Around Decarbonisation – India’s Stellar Solar Story
India's path towards Net Zero is of particular importance for achieving the global climate targets due to the sheer size of the country and its economic dynamism.
India’s path towards Net Zero is of particular importance for achieving the global climate targets due to the sheer size of the country and its economic dynamism. Its commitment at COP26 at Glasgow, 2021 was for creation of 500 gigawatt (GW) non-fossil power generating capacity by 2030. Since that announcement India has made impressive strides in the renewable energy sector, positioning itself as a frontrunner in the global renewable energy market. Central government policies and initiatives, technological advancements, and significant foreign investments, India has witnessed remarkable growth in renewable energy capacity, and today the country is ranked fourth globally in terms of the total solar capacity installed.
With a population of around 1.4 billion India has a massive demand for energy to fuel its rapidly growing economy. It is said that every year, India adds a city the size of London to its urban population, involving vast construction of new buildings, factories and transportation networks. Coal and oil have so far served as bedrocks of India’s industrial growth and modernisation, giving a rising number of Indian people access to modern energy services. This includes adding new electricity connections for 50 million citizens each year over the past decade. But in its pathway to net zero emissions by 2070, most of the growth in energy demand this decade would have to be met with low-carbon energy sources.
How is the Switch from Fossil to Non-Fossil Based Energy being Addressed?
In the years following the signing of the Paris agreement, India took a view that it must stop new thermal power projects and rev up renewable energy capacity. The government of India has set a target of 292 GW of installed solar energy capacity. According to estimates, 292 GW capacity would require at least six lakh hectares of land, which is close to impossible given India’s dense population.
So the approach has gotten more tempered and policymakers in India have taken the approach that while the renewable energy sector was one of the critical sectors, the country could not lose sight of its vast coal reserves nor can it give up traditional power generation i.e, thermal altogether. So while the thrust on renewable energy obviously continues, there is a revised plan of building further thermal capacity of around 20,000 megawatt (MW) per annum. There is a huge degree of push on transmission and distribution; transmission because new networks have to be connected to the power grids and carry this new load and distribution because there are many positive changes from installation of smart metres to time of day pricing. India is endowed with abundant solar energy which is capable of producing 5 trillion kw of clean energy.
At the same time, India has been aggressively pushing towards a more sustainable future by investing heavily in renewable energy sources with solar energy at the forefront of its efforts.
Many states in India have already recognized and identified solar energy potential and others are lined up to meet their growing energy demands with clean and everlasting solar energy. The top five states for installed renewable capacity in India are Rajasthan, Gujarat, Karnataka, Tamil Nadu and Maharashtra.
India’s target of achieving 50 percent of installed electric power capacity from non-fossil fuel-based energy resources by 2030, outlined in the Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs) appears to be well ahead of schedule. Already out of an overall installed electricity capacity of 425.5 GW, nearly 43.8% 186.46 GW non-fossil fuel-based capacity has been installed in the country. Of this solar power accounts for an impressive 57.9% of the nation’s total renewable energy output.
But even as the country celebrates more solar power projects, there is a forewarning from experts that solar can be used only in the day and then there will be rising pressure on grid engineers to find power after sunset at affordable rates. To facilitate the transition from fossil fuel-based sources to renewable energy sources, it is essential to make it dispatchable and available round the clock. In August 2023 the Ministry of Power and New & Renewable Energy issued the ‘National Framework for Promoting Energy Storage Systems’ which is a very clear recognition that as India steps up renewable power it will have to manage the imbalance between sunshine hours. The thrust rightfully so, on rapidly scaling up storage systems is receiving governmental attention both through the new policy framework as well as via subsidies.
This push is not just on battery storage which is expensive and has certain difficulties, but on large-scale Pumped storage plants (PSPs) capacity. PSPs can generate power continuously for a long duration, depending on the storage capacity of the reservoir. India’s current PSP capacity stands at 4,745.6 MW from eight plants, and surveys are being carried out for expansion of PSP capacity to 50 GW across 39 projects.
PLI Scheme in High efficiency Solar PV modules:
The union cabinet has also approved the introduction of the Production Linked Incentive scheme for ‘National programme on High Efficiency Solar PV Modules’ for achieving manufacturing capacity of GW scale in High Efficiency Solar PV Modules.
By making the transition to renewable energy a crucial component of its ‘Make in India’ programme the PLI scheme aims to develop and build an entire ecosystem for manufacturing of high efficiency solar PV modules in India, and thus reduce import dependence in the area of renewable energy.
The PLI scheme focuses on direct employment of about 1,95,000 and indirect employment of around 7,80,000 persons with import substitution of approximately Rs.1.37 lakh crore. The government has also allocated a total capacity of 39,600 MW of domestic solar PV module manufacturing to 11 companies with a total outlay of Rs. 14,007 crores. By October 2024 manufacturing capacity totaling 7,400 MW is expected to become operational; by April 2025 a capacity of 16,800 MW and the balance 15,400 MW capacity by April 2026.
As per the National Solar Energy Federation of India (NSEFI) India’s manufacturing capacity for solar modules will touch 100 GW by 2026 or 2027 with another 100 GW of cell manufacturing capacity.
Private Sector is Leading the Renewable Energy Wave in India:
Both domestic and foreign investors are contributing to the installation of solar power plants in the country. Over the past three financial years, India has attracted a total of $3.8 billion in foreign direct investment (FDI) in the solar energy sector.
Recently Adani Green Energy (AGEL) commissioned a 180 MW solar power plant in the Jaisalmer district of Rajasthan. Incorporating next-generation bifacial solar PV modules and horizontal single-axis solar trackers to maximise generation through better module efficiency and sun tracking throughout the day, the 180 MW solar plant is expected to produce around 540 million units (kWh) of electricity per year.
It was a very proud moment for India when engineering major Larsen & Toubro (L&T) commissioned its first indigenously manufactured electrolyzer at the green hydrogen plant at Hazira, Gujarat earlier this month. Equipped with an indigenously manufactured Electrolyser Processing Unit (EPU) ML-400, the L&T plans to leverage its giga-scale plant in Hazira to meet the growing demand for green hydrogen, maximising product localization through enhanced local supply chain, and automation for cost-competitiveness.
A continuing Thrust Towards Renewable Energy Despite Challenges:
Battery storage continues to be expensive, which makes deploying an off-grid solar in rural areas a challenge. To expand energy supply in rural areas the union government has initiated programs like ‘PM Surya Ghar: Muft Bijli Yojana’ to encourage solar rooftop panelling in maximum households. The Union Budget of 2023-24, has allocated a corpus of 7327 crore to the solar power sector. Under the Solar Park Scheme, more than 50 solar parks with a cumulative capacity of 38 GW are to be built.
Driven by increased capacity, India solar waste, end-of-life photovoltaic (PV) panels and associated electronic components is expected to increase from 100 kilotons in FY 20202 2023 to 600 kilotons by 2030. Government measures such as Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR) regulations for electronic waste, including solar panels and draft rules for the management of solar waste seek to address this issue.
Despite solar energy being the leading contributor, India is further diversifying its renewable energy portfolio especially in terms of wind energy, which contributes nearly 27.27% to India’s renewable energy generation.
Going forward, India’s renewable energy sector is poised for continued expansion with skill, innovation and finance for energy capacity addition.
Vaishali Basu Sharma is an analyst of strategic and economic affairs. She has worked as a consultant with India’s National Security Council Secretariat (NSCS) for nearly a decade. She is presently associated with New Delhi based think tank Policy Perspectives Foundation.
Q&A: Can genetic genealogy restore family narratives disrupted by the transatlantic slave trade?
Many African Americans descended from enslaved ancestors are working to trace their family histories by combining genealogical records and historical documents. Such efforts can connect them to living relatives and forge new sense of identity rooted in specific ancestral lineages and homelands, says University of Illinois anthropology professor LaKisha David. Credit: Fred Zwicky
Some political figures seek to remove references to slavery from the study of American history, adding to the vast knowledge gaps that stem from the transatlantic slave trade. To better understand these histories, scholars and individuals are turning to genetic genealogy to discover and retrace descendant-family lineages.
In a paper published in the journal American Anthropologist, University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign anthropology professor LaKisha David described these efforts. She spoke about the work to News Bureau life sciences editor Diana Yates.
What is genetic genealogy and how can it help people trace their family histories?
Genetic genealogy combines DNA testing with traditional family history research to help people discover ancestral origins and living relatives. Autosomal DNA tests from consumer companies like 23andMe and AncestryDNA can identify shared genetic segments that indicate cousin relationships going back several generations. By finding and connecting with genetic matches, individuals can extend their family trees beyond the limitations of historical records.
This technology is particularly valuable for descendants of ancestors who left little or no documentary trace due to social, political or economic marginalization. By engaging with distant cousins who share specific ancestral lineages, people can recover lost branches of their family trees and gain a more complete sense of the histories that may have impacted their lives.
What special genealogical challenges arise for the descendants of those who were enslaved in the U.S.?
For African Americans descended from enslaved ancestors, genealogical records alone are often insufficient to trace lineages prior to 1870 when the U.S. census began recording African Americans by name.
Sometimes the names of ancestors may be listed as property within bills of sale and estate inventories. This makes it incredibly difficult to trace family lineages through documentation alone. Moreover, slavery systematically fractured African American family structures through the domestic slave trade and forced family separations, leading to huge gaps in knowledge about ancestral identities, homelands and kinship ties. So, descendants today often lack a cohesive family narrative extending back prior to slavery. Genetic genealogy offers a way to restore some of these lost connections.
How might these explorations of family history connect people living today?
Finding living African relatives who descend from the same pre-slavery ancestors in Africa provides meaningful validation of family roots and a transnational network of contemporary relatives. It opens the door for African Americans and Africans to connect and learn from each other's family histories and lived experiences. These connections can forge a new sense of identity rooted in specific ancestral lineages and homelands.
Why are some descendants reluctant to engage in genetic studies?
Given the long history of unethical medical experimentation and discriminatory policies targeting African Americans, there is an understandable distrust of biomedical research among some African Americans.
People worry about the potential misuse of genetic information and the lack of transparency around the use of DNA samples. There are also concerns that genetic ancestry results can be misinterpreted in ways that reinforce biological views of race or impose essentialist notions of African identity onto complex diasporic cultures.
That said, it's important to contextualize African Americans' actual engagement in genetic testing. According to national surveys, Black adults are pursuing genetic ancestry testing at the same rate as the general U.S. population, which challenges the misconception that African Americans are universally distrustful of or disinterested in genetic research. The reality is more nuanced.
According to a 2019 survey by the Pew Research Center, 15% of all U.S. adults used genetic testing services. In a subsequent survey conducted in 2021 among the Black U.S. adult population, 15% of Black adults reported using these tests to learn more about their family histories. In other words, Black adults are engaging with genetic ancestry testing at rates comparable to the national average.
Many African Americans are strategically using consumer testing to fill in genealogical gaps and restore ancestral knowledge that was lost through the disruptions of slavery. The comparable participation rates suggest it is an overgeneralization to say descendants are reluctant to engage in genetic studies.
A more accurate assessment is that African Americans expect genetic research to be relevant and accountable to their communal interests and needs. By centering descendant perspectives, more researchers will find willing research partners within the African American population.
How do the genetic findings inform individual and community identities?
Genetic genealogy profoundly informs African American identities by restoring ancestral lineages, family narratives and diasporic relationships fractured by slavery. Discovering African relatives and hearing those new family narratives provides African Americans with new sources of socialization to reshape identity and belonging.
African Americans in my research experienced an intensified connection to African heritage and oftentimes incorporated the ethnicities and family histories of their African relatives into their self-concepts. This also provided an embodied sense of transgenerational continuity and cultural rootedness that extends beyond our histories in the U.S.
Genetic genealogy also contributes to dialogues about how slavery and colonialism have impacted Black identities worldwide. By revealing genetic relatedness across Africa and the diaspora, genetic genealogy empowers African descendants to redefine identities and kinship beyond the slaveholding frame.
Some African Americans also cultivated kinship bonds with African cousins and, as they engage in actual community-building, they advance new visions of family and ethnic belonging that challenge us all to reimagine identity.
You describe genetic genealogy as a potentially reparative process. What do you mean by that?
The inhumanity of chattel slavery relied on the legal and cultural negation of African family integrity and history. Efforts to restore descendant family ties, therefore, constitute a form of restorative justice—not as a substitute for material reparations but as a meaningful reclamation of personhood and heritage.
For African Americans who have grown up with a sense of ancestral loss and disconnection, this reclamation of family history is deeply humanizing and healing. It replaces the genealogical unknown with tangible knowledge of ancestral histories and kinship ties. Furthermore, genetic genealogy creates pathways for descendants to build actual relationships with contemporary African relatives.
Cultivating kinship connections and exchanging family histories with African cousins can restore an embodied feeling of cultural continuity and communal identity.
Identifying African genetic relatives also contributes to a larger process of historical truth-telling, cultural healing and diasporic community reconstruction, supplementing our identification with one another based on psychological connections.
In this sense, identifying African ancestors and living relatives is an act of restorative justice. It is ultimately about (re)claiming the humanity, dignity and agency of enslaved Africans and their descendants, which is an essential component of repairing the harms of slavery.
More information: LaKisha T. David, Supporting the use of genetic genealogy in restoring family narratives following the transatlantic slave trade, American Anthropologist (2023). DOI: 10.1111/aman.13939
LaKisha T. David, Addressing the feasibility of people of African descent finding living African relatives using direct‐to‐consumer genetic testing, American Journal of Biological Anthropology (2023). DOI: 10.1002/ajpa.24705
The crisis in Haiti over gangs who have overrun the country and outmatched security forces is fueled in part by a major, illegal flow of U.S. guns to the Caribbean nation, a longstanding problem that has only grown worse despite efforts from the Biden administration to tackle it.
The gangs running amok on the island are armed with powerful American-made weapons, including .50 caliber sniper rifles and semiautomatic AR-15 rifles, along with small arms like handguns.
The Biden administration has worked to crack down on the problems, but with Haiti’s porous borders and little government control, hundreds of thousands of illegal guns are thought to be circulating there.
Romain Le Cour, a senior expert at the Global Initiative against Transnational Organized Crime, said smugglers have been “literally pouring weapons into Haiti” for years, a situation he described as getting worse even during the ongoing disaster, which has limited imports.
“It is honestly outrageous to see a country and a city under total and absolute lockdown at war for a month, and there is absolutely no sign of shortage of weapons or ammunition,” Le Cour said. “The weapons keep coming in, it’s a never-ending story. We have to take care of the arms trafficking in Haiti, it’s extremely urgent.”
Since the assassination of Haitian President Jovenel Moïse in 2021, gang control has solidified, particularly in the capitol of Port-au-Prince. The situation has further deteriorated in the past year, with the United Nations warning that more than 360,000 people have been displaced from their homes so far.
The last few weeks of gang fighting has grown even more volatile. The violence forced the U.S. to send in an elite team of Marines to defend the American Embassy while Haiti’s Prime Minister Ariel Henry was pressured into resigning and the government has essentially collapsed.
Gangs are estimated to now control about 90 percent of Port-au-Prince as they outgun the Haitian National Police (HNP). There are estimated to be up to 200 gangs in the country with growing ranks fighting some 9,000 HNP officers.
A Thursday United Nations report says more than 4,400 people died in Haiti in 2023 from gang violence, while deaths have skyrocketed in the first three months of this year to more than 1,500.
The report, which described the situation as “cataclysmic,” also detailed how gangs continue to maintain a “reliable supply chain” for weapons and ammunition.
United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights Volker Türk issued an appeal for a “more effective implementation” of an existing arms embargo on Haiti.
“It is shocking that despite the horrific situation on the ground, arms keep still pouring in,” Türk said in a Thursday statement.
Robert Fatton, a professor of government and foreign affairs at the University of Virginia who has written books on Haiti, said the gangs would never have grown so strong without the mass proliferation of U.S. guns.
“If they didn’t have those weapons, they wouldn’t be as powerful, there’s no doubt about that,” he said. “The more guns get there, the more powerful they get.”
The guns arrive to Haiti through a vast network of criminals operating abroad, many of them in Florida or other southeastern U.S. states.
Firearms are bought legally in the U.S., at gun shops or shows. They are usually smuggled in shipments leaving from Miami-Dade and Port Everglade in Florida, paid for with gang profits made through extortion and drug sales.
The ships often dock in nearby countries such as Jamaica or Panama before sending shipments through smaller vessels to Haitian ports at Port-au-Prince or Port-de-Paix, according to a 2023 United Nations report. Firearms can also arrive in Haiti through small planes flying into airports.
In Haiti, gangs control key access to maritime ports, airports and border crossings with the Dominican Republic, another avenue for arms trafficking. With the collapse of the government, there is almost no one stopping the flow of arms once they reach Haiti.
Yet Haiti relies on imports for all kinds of goods and supplies, making the country reliant on shipments that will have to keep flowing. And compounding the problem is that Haiti is notoriously corrupt, with police officers sometimes diverting weapons provided to them from international countries including the U.S. into the hands of gangs.
The United Nations noted that there could be as many as 500,000 guns in Haiti, though the exact number is not known and potentially much higher.
Alexander Causwell, an analyst at the Caribbean Policy Research Institute, said the sheer amount of guns in the country has created “pure anarchy” and a spiraling situation — regardless of future arms trafficking.
“The problem is that there’s already lots of guns there. That’s the current problem. Which is why they’re undergoing this kind of criminal insurgency against what’s left of the state,” he said of the gangs.
U.S. guns have long fueled violence throughout Latin American and the Caribbean world, including in countries such as Mexico where cartels have grown to outsized power.
The Biden administration has been trying to get at the problem. Last year it appointed a coordinator for Caribbean Firearms Prosecutions and signed a cooperation agreement with the HNP on a tracing system to better identify smugglers.
The State Department is also working with the HNP and the Homeland Security Investigations agency at the Immigrations and Customs Enforcement to bolster probes. And in September, the U.S. launched Operation Hammerhead together with a Caribbean task force, seizing at least 48 pistols, 10 rifles, 10 magazines, four revolvers, and 3,371 rounds of ammunition as of November.
Washington has also moved to prosecute criminal smugglers. The Department of Justice announced in February that Joly Germine, known as the “King” of the 400 Mawozo gang, had pleaded guilty to a conspiracy to smuggle 24 high-powered weapons, including AR-15s and AK-47s from the U.S. into Haiti.
From a Haitian prison, Germine worked with his former girlfriend and at least one other person to purchase the weapons in the U.S. and smuggle them into Haiti inside of a cargo of household goods, according to prosecutors.
Although the U.S. is making efforts, Diego Da Rin, a Latin American and Caribbean consultant for the International Crisis Group, said Washington could do more to step up inspections at ports where the firearms are leaving for Haiti.
“Countries should implement all necessary measures to curb the illegal arms to Haiti, including inspections at their own ports within their own borders,” Da Rin said. “The United States hasn’t made any concrete measures in that sense.”
He also called for enhanced scanning tools for port inspections.
Fatton, from the University of Virginia, said the Navy or Coast Guard, the latter of which already patrols around Haiti primarily to watch for migrants fleeing the country, could stop more small boats heading to the island.
“If you can stop the [trafficking] at the source, that would be the key,” he said. “I think the U.S. can do much better, even if the Haitian authorities are incapable or unwilling.”
Six Democratic senators in December sent a letter to President Biden asking what efforts he is taking to address the Haiti crisis, including to stop firearms smuggling.
Congress passed in 2022 the Bipartisan Safer Communities Act, which increased penalties for straw purchases of firearms and for the first time made trafficking arms a federal crime.
Rep. Joaquin Castro (D-Texas) joined Democratic colleagues in introducing bipartisan legislation this month to require the Biden administration report on the anti-firearm-trafficking provisions in the Bipartisan Safer Communities Act.
In a statement to The Hill, Castro called for stepping up interagency cooperation, including between the Coast Guard and Homeland Security Investigations, and for more data on the U.S. weapons ending up in Haiti.
He praised Biden for tackling the problem on several fronts, but noted there was room for improvement.
“The administration has been slow to fulfill President Biden’s campaign promise to move oversight of gun exports back to the State Department — a delay that is hampering the fight against trafficking and making it easier for legal gun exports to the Dominican Republic and other nations to end up in the hands of Haitian gangs,” Castro said. “I hope the administration will make good on that promise soon.”
Meanwhile, in Haiti, open borders and lax enforcement have created a free zone for traffickers.
For Haitians, the well-armed gangs have plummeted their country into a spiraling humanitarian crisis, which will have to be addressed first before tackling the flow of arms.
Haiti Country Director Laurent Uwumuremyi, with the humanitarian aid group Mercy Corps, said hospitals and medical facilities are becoming non-functional because of a lack of personnel and supplies, while supply chains are struggling to deliver humanitarian aid.
“If the security situation is not established in the near future, the situation is going to deteriorate very significantly,” he said.
The U.S. and the regional alliance of the Caribbean Community are working to address the situation but are confronted with the reality of a nearly collapsed Haitian government and powerful gangs armed to the teeth.
The U.N. Security Council last year supported a Kenyan-led multinational police force to enter Haiti and quell the violence.
But Kenya has halted plans to send 1,000 troops in the wake of the resignation of Henry, the prime minister, raising concerns about being unable to work with an official entity in Haiti.
Le Cour, with the Global Initiative against Transnational Organized Crime, said the multinational force may be able to move into Haiti once a transitional government council is appointed, which he said could come as soon as early April.
While there are questions about whether an international mission would be welcomed by Haitians and whether they can restore order safely and effectively, Le Cour said it “has to be done” to help the HNP.
“It’s going to be a challenge for the council,” he said, describing the task ahead as a “titanic” one. “But it’s the first step towards restoring governance and order and a minimum level of rule of law in the country.”
Voices: Haiti was once the honeymoon destination for Hollywood’s elite. What happened?
Kim Sengupta Sun, 31 March 2024 Richard Burton poses with president of Haiti Jean-Claude Duvalier and his wife British actress Suzy Miller (AFP/Getty)
There was a time when Haiti was a favoured destination for the rich and famous. Richard and Elizabeth Taylor had one of their honeymoons there. Other visitors included Noel Coward, John Gielgud, Paulette Goddard and Irving Berlin. Mick Jagger and the broadcaster Barbara Walters came among a later generation of celebrities.
The names of the glitterati can be seen in the visitors book of the Grand Hotel Oloffson in the capital, Port-au-Prince. Graham Greene stayed while writing The Comedians, which brought the Haiti of Papa Doc Duvalier, and his murderous secret police, the Tonton Macoute, to a wider English-speaking readership.
The slide, which began with the repressive rule of Duvalier, who sought to strike terror into his subjects by identifying with Baron Samedi, the Vodou god of the dead, was never reversed. Papa Doc died in 1971, to be succeeded by his 19-year-old son, Jean Claude “Baby Doc” Duvalier. The descent into chaos continued.
Haiti is now essentially a failed state, with criminal gangs controlling more than 80 per cent of Port-au-Prince. According to the United Nations around 4,450 were killed in the last year – 1500 of them in the last three months. Another 1,700 were injured. The UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, Volker Turk, warned the that the “outrageous” levels of violence has brought Haiti to “ the brink of collapse”.
Many of those among the Haitian rich who have not already left the country have been holed up in recent weeks in their homes in Petionville, on a hill above the capital, listening to the echoes of gunfire and watching spreading flames as violence consumed the capital.
The gangs turned their baleful gaze up the hill to the affluent suburb of mansions, embassies and hotels which had so far managed to avoid the worst of the strife. Groups of young men arrived in their stolen motorcycles and cars, waving automatic rifles and machetes, intent on pillage and killing.
A bank, shops, cafes, petrol stations and a number of houses were looted in Petion-Ville and the adjoining districts of Laboule and Thomassin. But many of the residents had armed themselves and the security guards they employ in preparation for an attack. A vigilante group which had been increasingly active against the gangs, Bwa Kale, arrived to join in the fight.
Haiti is now essentially a failed state (AP)
Around 20 people were killed in the clashes which followed. Enraged locals burned and mutilated bodies, chopping off the hands of some who had been looting. Two gang leaders were killed in consecutive days – Makandal, and then Ernst Julme, aka Ti Greg, the head of Delmas 95, part of a gang coalition headed by Jimmy “Barbecue” Chérizier, the most well-known of the Haiti mobsters.
The police announced that they had shot dead Julme. The vigilantes of Bwa Kale are believed to have killed Makandal. The gangs vowed retribution: but their attempt to take over the areas they already control have been thwarted for now.
Jean-Philippe Louissant and his family had barricaded their home in Petionville. “We knew what was coming, we have been seeing what has been happening, and we had to be ready. These gang leaders are very bad men – they don’t just want to rob, they want to take over this city”, he said.
“There are dead bodies lying in the streets now. There is a war going on here, I don’t think people in the outside world understand that. It is getting impossible to exist like this. We will have to leave if things don’t improve. We don’t want to leave, but we may have to.”
Jean-Philippe, his wife Celeste, and their three children are discussing plans to move to Cap-Haitien in the north coast, which is still relatively calm, and then probably to Florida where they have relations living. But the road journeys to the coast are perilous, with armed bands ambushing cars to rob and take hostages.
There is an overwhelming feeling, say Haitians, that they are being abandoned to a grim fate. It has been six months since the United Nations, with Washington’s support, approved the sending of a military support mission. For the last three months warnings have come from neighbouring Caribbean and Latin American states that Haiti was close to collapse.
A transitional council will be formed in the next few days to form an administration until elections are held later in the year. António Guterres, the United Nations secretary general, welcoming the news, said he hoped this would pave the way for a more stable future.
But there is widespread perception that there is little that the transitional council will be able to do for now. People are continuing to vote with their feet. The US is evacuating its citizens by helicopter from Port-au-Prince to the Dominican Republic, which forms the island of Hispaniola with Haiti. The airport in Port-au-Prince has suspended operations after repeatedly coming under attack from gunmen.
The French government announced this week that it will bring out 170 of its citizens and 70 others from European Union states due to the continuing deterioration in security. Like the US operation, the evacuation will take place by helicopter.
The reason the airport was targeted, according to Barbeque and other gang leaders, was to prevent the acting president, Ariel Henry, from returning to Haiti. Henry, who had been asking for international security help for more than a year, had gone to Nairobi to negotiate the arrival of a Kenyan force. He is now in exile in Puerto Rico.
The last president, Jovenel Moïse, was assassinated in 2021. The acting president who followed him, Claude Joseph, was subsequently indicted over Moïse’s killing. Haiti, meanwhile, degenerated into ungoverned, chaotic space.
Haiti’s army was dissolved by a previous president, Jean-Bertrand Aristide. The only security presence now is a beleaguered police force which is struggling to protect what is left of the national institutions. They are only just managing to repulse an attempt to raid the country’s central bank this week. An armed mob has successfully stormed the two main prisons, allowing 4,400 inmates serving sentences for violent crimes – including murders, rapes and robberies – to stream out on to the streets. Ernst Julme, who died this week, was one of those freed.
The growing anarchy has been described by Unicef’s chief in Haiti, Catherine Russell, as a “scene out of Mad Max”. The Catholic bishops’ convocation in Port-au-Prince lamented that the country was being “reduced to rubble and ashes” with “moral codes breaking down”.
Rival criminal groups are carving out territories. There are no fewer than 200 gangs in the country, a hundred of them in Port-au-Prince alone. Many of them have historic ties with politicians and successive ruling regimes which have allowed them to recruit and build up arsenals with impunity.
The police complain that they are outgunned by the gangs. Garry John Baptiste, an official with the National Police Union, maintains that successes are being achieved despite lack of help from home and abroad.
“We are eliminating some important criminals now, the leaders – that is a good message to the gangs. But they have lots of weapons. We haven’t got enough rifles or equipment – 60 per cent of the police don’t even have bullet-proof vests. We have had so many of our members killed, and these are officers who are risking their lives for just $200 a month”. A police officer runs during an anti-gang operation at the Portail neighborhood of Port-au-Prince, Haiti (Copyright 2024 The Associated Press. All rights reserved)
There are growing calls in the US for intervention. James Foley, a former American ambassador to Haiti, points out that unless urgent steps are taken, the United States will face a failed state run by criminals and narco-traffickers about 700 miles from Florida.” Setting up a Transitional Council “is a race against time – and, in my view, it is unlikely to succeed, or even get international security forces into the country, without providing US military cover.”
For Jean-Philippe, living in Haiti is “like it was in Mogadishu”. The gang leaders, he held, were “like warlords – they want money and power”. The forming of the transitional council was a step in the right direction. But “people ask “where’s their army?’”.
I had met the Louissant family in 2010 while covering the devastating earthquake which had hit Haiti. A neighbour of his in Petionville had very kindly let me and colleagues from the Telegraph and the Guardian stay at their home – hospitality was much appreciated at a time when the few remaining hotels and guest houses remaining standing were full.
The earthquake, the “day of catastrophe”, claimed more than 220,000 lives, destroyed more than a quarter million homes and 30,000 commercial and industrial buildings. The poorest country in the Western hemisphere, with a history of natural and man-made disasters, brutal repression and endemic corruption, was reeling from what had befallen it.
The Louissants, however, refused to leave, determined, said Jean-Phillipe, to reopen the family’s factory and shops supplying electrical appliances. “We don’t want to abandon our workers, they depend on us, our customers depend on us”, he said. “Haiti will get economic help, there’ll be aid coming in, things will pick up and get much better.”
He was not the only one showing resilience. We saw the Brasserie Nationale d’Haïti, one of the country’s biggest beverage manufacturers, re-open and started rolling out its most popular product, Prestige beer. In Petionville, the Rivoli boutique repaired its showcases, to display one again Hermes scarves and Lacoste T-shirts, Tag-Heuer watches and Chanel perfume.
Elections later that year seemed to offer a firm path forward. Justice for human rights abuses of the past was due to take place with the trial of Jean-Claude Duvalier, who had returned to Haiti – but he died before facing trial.
Michel Martelly was a voted into power. A musician by profession, who split his time between Miami and Haiti, he entertained us journalists during the campaign with renditions of Creole Konpa music, and promised to root out corruption and integrate Haiti into the international community.
But hopes of a rebirth for the nation after the earthquake soon faded away. Most of the billions of dollars promised in aid from abroad did not materialise. A lot of what did arrive was misappropriated.
The old politics of Haiti were soon to resurface. Martelly had to step down in 2016 amid allegations of electoral fraud without a successor in place. He was subsequently sanctioned by the Canadian government for human rights abuse and involvement with criminal gangs. Elections held late that year brought Jovenel Moise to the presidency.
The justice system was breaking down. Kidnappings had jumped 72 per cent last year from the year before. It was not just the wealthy who were being abducted and held for ransom, but doctors, lawyers, academics. Many of the victims were routinely murdered if the payment was not made.
Noel Hypolite, a surgeon we saw working tirelessly treating patients after the earthquake, and who later helped set up a clinic for impoverished families, was among those who died. There had been a “misunderstanding”, his kidnappers acknowledged, about the location of the ransom drop. Dr Hypolite’s wife, a paediatrician, left with their family for Canada. Up to 25 per cent of medical staff are estimated to have left Haiti by the end of 2023.
Many Haitians feel now that salvation lies in international – preferably Western – intervention. People look for salvageable pieces from burned cars at a mechanic shop that was set on fire during violence by armed gangs in Port-au-Prince (Copyright 2024 The Associated Press. All rights reserved)
But foreign powers have left scars during the country’s history of two centuries. Haiti won its independence through a slave revolt which began in 1804 in what was then the French colony of Saint-Domingue, fighting off not just French forces but those of Britain and Spain.
The French isolated Haiti from the international community, demanding 150 million francs ($ 21 billion today) in reparation to lift the blockade. The penalty was reduced to 90 million francs after negotiations, but in 1914 no less than 80 per cent of Haiti’s budget was still going towards paying the debt.
The same year, 1914, US marines landed in Port-au-Prince and removed $ 500,000 in gold ($15 million today) from Haiti’s national bank to protect investment by Wall Street financiers. American forces returned a year later for two-decades of occupation. “I helped make Haiti a decent place for the National City Bank boys to collect revenues”, said the US commander Major General Smedley Butler.
Even the more benevolent deployment of a United Nations force after the 2010 earthquake brought misery. Infected sewage from their base led to 10,000 people in Haiti, cholera-free at that point, to die from the disease.
But in the current dire straits, many Haiti needs to look to the future, not the past. Jean Daniel Delone, an excellent journalist I worked with in Haiti, had been full of hope that the country would recover and stride forward from the calamities it had experienced. Now, he says, it is time to face reality.
“We are in a precarious situation. There is a shortage of water and food, and there is a desperate need for humanitarian aid”, he said. “We live close to places that suffer from gangs all the time. We can clearly hear the shooting; we’ll be in real trouble if they move in, already supplies can’t come in from the areas they’ve taken over.
“My son can’t go to school, the schools are shut. Markets, offices and factories are shut; all this leads to stress, there are bad psychological effects. With what is happening now, yes we are praying for international troops to come and help the police who are really stretched.”
Jean-Philippe Louissant agrees: “No country likes having foreign soldiers present. But we are in a desperate situation. For so many young men there are no jobs, no hope – but they have guns. What we need more than anything is security. If there is an explosion, it will not stay just in Haiti, it will spread through the region”.
Russian Orthodox Finding Ways to Break with Increasingly Bellicose Moscow Patriarchate, Zanemonets Says
Staunton, Mar. 31 – This week, the World Russian Popular Assembly, which is led and controlled by Moscow Patriarch Kirill, declared Russia’s military operation in Ukraine “a holy war in which Russia an its people, in defending the single spiritual space of Holy Rus is fulfilling the mission of defending the world from globalism and satanism.”
Such a call represents a call for the destruction of the Ukrainian state and certainly is what Kirill and his bosses in the Kremlin want, but Aleksandr Zanemonets, a Finnish Orthodox churchman, says that it doesn’t reflect what many in the Russian Orthodox Church believe and that its members have options (theins.ru/opinions/alexander-zanemonets/270112).
Given Russian tradition and the tendency of others to follow it, many assume that whatever the top person says in any Russian hierarchy is what everyone below him or her believes, but that is not the case in any of these, the priest, who is subordinate to the Ecumenical Patriarchate in Constaninople and who follows Russian Orthodoxy from the Netherlands, says.
Many people in the ROC MP do not accept what Kirill and his like are saying. As in Soviet times, it is dangerous for them to speak out; but many of them do what they can by acting to help Ukrainians who have fled the war and by discouraging young Russians from going there to fight.
Some Russian Orthodox churchmen have fled the country where they find it far easier to express their views, Zanemonets says, because Orthodox leaders in other countries including Finland don’t follow Moscow’s line. But while they have greater freedom of speech, they have less influence in practical ways than those who remain inside Russia.
He concludes his commentary by quoting the observation of the late émigré churchman, Father Aleksandr Shmeman, who observed that “there is one path for those who leave and another path for those who remain” but who also insisted that in either situation, Orthodox Christians must strive to remain human.
Fewer Russians Now Identify as Orthodox Christians than Did Seven Years Ago but a Larger Share of Those who Do are Active, VTsIOM Finds
Staunton, Mar. 31 – During a period when the Kremlin has been promoting Orthodox Christianity, the share of Russians who identify as followers of that denomination has fallen from 75 percent in 2017 to 66 percent now, according to a VTsIOM poll. But of those who identify as such, the share who say they keep fasts has risen.
According to surveys from 2017 to 2022, 71 to 75 percent of Russian Orthodox said they did not keep the fast; but now, only 56 percent say they don’t. And this change has been especially great in the last two years: in 2022, 74 percent said they ignored the fast t; now only 56 percent do (kasparov.ru/material.php?id=65FF23B07DC10§ion_id=50A6C962A3D7C).
At the same time, VTsIOM finds that only four percent of those who identify as Russian Orthodox observe all fasts, with somewhat higher percentages simply restricting their consumption of alcohol or meat or avoiding using foul language. More generally, only 22 percent regularly attend church services, and only 13 percent pray on a daily basis.
A large portion of all these developments reflect generational change: Only 38 percent of Russians between the ages of 18 and 24 identify as Orthodox (and only 52 percent of those between 25 and 34 do so) while among those 35 and older, the percentage doing so is 69 to 75 percent.
Commenting on these results, Moscow analyst Aleksey Makarkin says that “with the change of generations, the number of believers is contracting as among young people atheism has become “fashionable” just as three decades ago it was “fashionable” to identify oneself as Orthodox.”
But “at the same time, among the Orthodox is observed a trend toward following the rules, albeit selectively, with people themselves defining” which ones they will observe and how rather than blindly following what the ROC MP declares.
Why April Fools Day in France Involves Fish Pranks
MARCH 31, 2024 "Allow me to address to you / With my deepest tenderness / This beautiful fish, fresh and discreet / To which I have confided my secret," says this April Fish card in French.
IF YOU FIND YOURSELF IN France on April 1, don’t be surprised if something seems fishy. Maybe someone gives you a chocolate or a pastry in the shape of a cod? Perhaps you find a paper haddock stuck to your back, and then everyone erupts into laughter and starts pointing and shouting “poisson d’avril”? Don’t be alarmed, you’ve simply immersed yourself in the centuries-long French tradition of April Fool’s Day, known as poisson d’avril or “April Fish.”
“The idea of April Fool’s Day, or April 1, as a special day is murky,” says Jack Santino, a folklorist and Professor Emeritus at Bowling Green State University in Ohio. “Every country has its own historical event they think gave rise to it.” But France’s tradition is the only one that involves aquatic life. Historians have many theories about the origins of this piscine tradition, but no overall consensus. The most common theories are connected to pagan celebrations of the vernal equinox, Christianity, a 16th-century calendar change, and the start of the French fishing season.
April fools may trace back to Ancient Rome, but France’s fish part is harder to pin down.
Some historians date this tradition back to the Ancient Roman pagan festival of Hilaria, a celebration marking the vernal equinox with games and masquerades. Santino says ancient Roman and Celtic celebrations of the vernal equinox are likely forerunners. Connections to those rituals “provide a kind of cultural vocabulary that people can draw on,” according to Santino. However, he believes they probably don’t have a direct connection to the fish part.
For some, that’s where Christianity comes in. The “ichthus” fish—an ancient Hellenic Christian acronym for “Jesus Christ, Son of God, Savior”—is nowadays widely recognized as a symbol of Christianity, but was originally used as a secret marker of Christian affiliation. Moreover, the Lenten forty-day period between Ash Wednesday and Easter Sunday prohibits the consumption of meat, so fish is often served as a substitute protein during this period.
The depiction of Lent from 1893 shows how long fish has been a major part of the Christian tradition.
As the end of Lent often occurs on or near April 1, celebrations including fish imagery would be apt to mark the end of the fasting season. Some even go so far as to surmise that poisson d’avril is a corruption of the word “passion,” as in “passion of the Christ,” into “poisson,” the French word for fish. Despite these cultural associations, Santino points out there is no actual evidence for this link to Christianity.
Then there’s the popular calendar change theory that has been widely discounted by experts today, but still comes up. In 1564, King Charles IX of France issued the Edict of Roussillon, which moved the start of the calendar year from somewhere in the period of March 25 and April 1 (different provinces kept their own calendars) to January 1.
Pope Gregory XIII standardized January 1 as the beginning of the calendar year throughout the entire Christian empire with the adoption of the Gregorian calendar in 1582. One might surmise that those who still observed the start of the new year on April 1 rather than January 1 were the “April Fools” in question and therefore subject to pranks. However, references to poisson d’avril predate the 1564 edict, occurring in print as early as 1466, which debunks this explanation.
Now paper, people used to hook real dead fish onto the backs of fishermen.
JACK GAROFALO/GETTY IMAGES
Another plausible theory involves actual fishing. As the days get longer in the northern hemisphere, the return of spring also marks the beginning of the fishing season in France, on or near the first day of April. Some posit that the prank of offering a fish was to tease fishermen who, at this time, either had no fish or an incredible abundance. They would either have to wait around for spawning fish to be of legal size before catching them or, once it was finally time, they would be overwhelmed by catching so many fish rushing upstream. According to this theory, real herrings were the original sea critter of choice for the prank, and the trick was to hook a dead herring onto a fisherman’s back and see how long it took him to notice, as the fish began to progressively stink over the course of the day.
The poisson d’avril tradition took another turn in the early 20th century, when friends and lovers would exchange decorative postcards featuring ornate images of fish. The majority of these cards were inscribed with funny rhyming messages that were often flirtatious and suggestive, but cloaked in humor. While most cards depict young women, flowers, and fish, the ocean and other marine animals are occasionally featured, as well as references to advances in technology, such as airplanes and automobiles. Pierre Ickowicz, chief curator of the Château de Dieppe Museum in Normandy, which houses an impressive collection of these cards, says the card exchange tradition seems to have died out shortly after World War I. The museum’s 1,716 postcards are mainly from the 1920s-1930s
.
Poisson d’avril postcards from the 1920s and ’30s were full of flirtation and fish. WELLCOME COLLECTION/PUBLIC DOMAIN; FOTOTECA GILARDI/GETTY IMAGES
These days in France, the most common observers of poisson d’avril are schoolchildren, who delight in taping paper fish to the backs of their siblings, classmates, and teachers. Although the execution has varied over time, from dead herring accessories to postcards to paper fish, the prankster nature has been consistent.
“This idea of playing pranks on people is something that would be obnoxious if it weren’t socially condoned on certain days,” says Santino. He notes that times of transition are often connected to rites of passage where societal rules can be broken. “If poisson d’avril has to do with a recognition of springtime, I would link it to the idea of a celebratory transition into a new period of time, and part of that celebration means we can do things that are not usually allowed.”
Today, people celebrate poisson d’avril in both neighboring Italy and in Quebec, Canada, a former colony of France. The exact origins remain murky, but the fish endures. Whether or not you participate in any kind of trickster behavior on the first of April, there’s surely some relief today that an actual dead, stinky fish is no longer a regular part of April Fool’s day—or at least hopefully that bit of history doesn’t plant any devilish ideas.
Children are the main culprits today, but anyone can end up with a paper fish on their back on April 1. KEYSTONE-FRANCE/GETTY IMAGES; LAURENT SOLA/GETTY IMAGES
US firm AT&T says data of 73 million customers leaked on ‘dark web’
At least 7.6 million existing AT&T account holders and 65.4 million former users hit by the breach, the company says.
A man rides an electric scooter past an AT&T telephone store, February 22, 2024, in Denver, US [File: David Zalubowski/AP]
Published On 31 Mar 2024
Personal information belonging to millions of past and present AT&T customers has been leaked online, including Social Security numbers (SSNs), passcodes and contact details, the multinational company says.
In a statement on Saturday, the telecommunication network – the largest in the United States – said a recently discovered dataset on the “dark web” contained information for about 7.6 million current AT&T account holders and 65.4 million former users, totalling about 73 million affected accounts.
It is not known if the breach “originated from AT&T or one of its vendors”, the company said.
“To the best of our knowledge, the compromised data appears to be from 2019 or earlier and does not contain personal financial information or call history,” the statement added.
All 7.6 million existing account holders whose sensitive personal information was compromised were set to be notified about the breach AT&T. The company said it had already reset passcodes and was investigating the incident.
In addition to passcodes and SSNs, the hacked data possibly included email and mailing addresses, phone numbers and birth dates, AT&T added.
Reports of the breach first surfaced on a hacking forum nearly two weeks ago. It is unclear if the leak is linked to a similar breach in 2021 that was widely reported but that AT&T did not acknowledge.
A hacker at the time claimed to have access to data of 70 million AT&T customers, including their names, addresses, phone numbers, SSNs, and date of birth.
Auction data on a hacking forum revealed the hacker attempted to sell the stolen information for thousands of dollars.
“If they assess this and they made the wrong call on it, and we’ve had a course of years pass without them being able to notify impacted customers” then it’s likely the company will soon face class action lawsuits, cybersecurity expert Troy Hunt told The Associated Press news agency.
Troy, the creator of Have I Been Pwned? – a website that alerts subscribers to data breaches – said in a blogpost at least 153,000 of his customers were affected.
The Dallas-based company faced challenges earlier in February after an outage temporarily knocked out mobile phone service for thousands of users.
AT&T blamed the incident on a technical coding error, not a malicious attack. Other networks were also affected, but AT&T appeared to be the hardest hit.
Children are the main culprits today, but anyone can end up with a paper fish on their back on April 1. KEYSTONE-FRANCE/GETTY IMAGES; LAURENT SOLA/GETTY IMAGES