Opinion: Hate against Haitian immigrants ignores how US politics pushed them here

Régine Théodat
Wed, October 2, 2024

As Haitians find themselves at the center of yet another political firestorm, a pawn in another U.S. election cycle, it’s easy for some in the United States to forget about the real people caught in the middle. The political back-and-forth might lead those unfamiliar with Haiti's struggle to wrongly assume that Haitians are incapable of being at the center of their self-determination, as if today’s Haitians are somehow different from those who rose up in 1791, fought their enslavers and liberated themselves in 1804 to create the first free Black republic.

A new documentary, "The Fight for Haiti," shows how untrue that is.

Anti-immigrant rhetoric ignores key factors that brought us here. Ironically, the most recent anti-corruption movement was dismantled by Jovenel Moïse, a president backed by both the Trump and Biden administrations.

Moïse’s actions before his assassination in 2021 further fueled gang violence, displacing hundreds of thousands.

In testimonies to the U.S. Congress, activists have warned that Washington's continued support for corrupt leaders would result in mass migration ‒ something today’s xenophobic rhetoric ignores.
Why Haitian group filed criminal charges against Trump, Vance

President Donald Trump welcomes Haitian President Jovenel Moïse and other Caribbean leaders in 2019 to his Mar-a-Lago estate in West Palm Beach Fla.

Last week, the Haitian Bridge Alliance filed citizen criminal charges against Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump and his running mate, Sen. JD Vance of Ohio, citing their "baseless and malicious comments" about Haitian immigrants in Springfield eating pets.

The repeated claims without evidence resulted in bomb threats and evacuations, terrorizing Springfield. Under Ohio law, private citizens seeking an arrest of prosecution can file an affidavit for review.

In a now-deleted tweet, Rep. Clay Higgins, R-La., disparaged the advocacy group by dismissing its legal action as a "sophistication" Haitians couldn’t possibly possess ‒ seemingly unaware of the "sophistication" of the Haitian Revolution that played a crucial role in the Louisiana Purchase, where he now holds office.

Opinion: Trump's Republican Party excuses racists

Haitians have, and always have, embodied the wherewithal to seek self-determination. "The Fight for Haiti" shows us that the Haitians of today are indeed their ancestors' wildest dreams.

This gripping documentary takes us into historical and current events sparked by a seemingly simple question: What happened to billions of dollars in missing development funds received through Venezuela’s PetroCaribe oil alliance?

The film centers on the PetroCaribe challenge that struck a nerve in a nation long burdened by corruption, broken promises and worsening living conditions. Despite facing physical loss, death and threats, the aptly named “Petrochallengers” held firm in their question: "Kot kòb PetroCaribe a?" (Where is the PetroCaribe money?)

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It was a question Haitians globally were asking. In 2018, Haitian filmmaker and writer Gilbert Mirambeau Jr. posted a photo of himself holding a cardboard sign with that very question. This unsuspecting tweet quickly became the catalyst for a monumental shift in Haiti’s sociopolitical landscape, landing at the perfect moment. Social media challenges were thriving, and a digitally savvy, frustrated and mobilized youth in Haiti turned it into a movement.

The question cut through Haiti's internal social hierarchies, which often separate people by wealth, location or education. Everyone wanted the answer.

Haitians demanded justice from US-backed regime

Director Etant Dupain interviews anti-corruption activist Stephanie Boucher in 2021 in Port-au-Prince for his 2024 documentary, "The Fight for Haiti."

As the director of "The Fight for Haiti" documentary, Etant Dupain, explains: "The movement unites all walks of life, this is one of the reasons I interviewed all different ages, classes and groupings of people, I want to show that all Haitians are concerned."

The country had grown accustomed to corruption and broken promises, but the film shows why this specific question about the PetroCaribe funds was different. The deal with Venezuela offered Haiti discounted oil, with the savings intended for development projects such as infrastructure, health care and education. Unlike typical foreign aid, which often leaves countries trapped in debt and under foreign control, this was a chance for Haiti to invest in itself.

Unfortunately, much of the money disappeared, stolen by the people trusted to safeguard it. Many projects were either never completed or poorly executed.

Opinion: I'm a pastor in Springfield. Haitian immigrants in our city need compassion, not hate.

Like their ancestors, who turned from everyday people into soldiers, today's Haitians became activists and investigators. When the movement began in 2018, anyone with a smartphone could be a Petrochallenger. People used social media to demand a collective audit of the funds.

Eventually, the Moïse government was forced to conduct a full audit. Despite threats against the auditors, the Petrochallengers persisted, and three thorough reports were published.

This audit serves as the foundation for holding those responsible accountable, recovering the stolen funds and investing them in the country's development. The United States and Canada have initiated economic and political sanctions against many involved in the funds misappropriation. No arrests have been made, but Petrochallengers hope and continue to fight for justice.

The story of the question "Kot kòb PetroCaribe a?" and the Petrochallengers is more than a movement; it’s a symbol of the Haitian people’s resolve. "The Fight for Haiti" powerfully captures that determination, making it not just a historical document but an urgent call to action for a brighter future.

"The movement is not dead because the activists believe the trial is nonnegotiable," Dupain says. "The film itself is proof that the movement is very much alive, and it is also a tool to build momentum."

Will you also be a Petrochallenger?

Régine Théodat is a Haitian American entrepreneur, strategist and cultural advocate.

Régine Théodat is a Haitian American entrepreneur, strategist and cultural advocate. She’s principal at Anana Consultants and owns a children's cultural learning brand, Isse & Lo.

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Opinion: Trump, Vance lie about Haitians. 'Fight for Haiti' doesn't

Trump on Springfield Haitian migrants: ‘They have to be removed’

Damita Menezes
Wed, October 2, 2024 

NEWSNATION


Former President Donald Trump spoke with Ali Bradley, who leads NewsNation’s daily coverage of the border. Follow Ali on X and click here to download the NewsNation app to see exclusive reporting from the border every day.

HOUSTON (NewsNation) — Former President Donald Trump exclusively told NewsNation in an interview Wednesday he would revoke the temporary protected status for Haitian migrants living in Springfield, Ohio, and ensure their return to Haiti.

The Republican nominee was at a private fundraiser in Texas when he addressed the situation in Springfield, telling NewsNation border reporter Ali Bradley that 32,000 Haitian migrants had been relocated to a community of 52,000 residents.

Trump told NewsNation he believes Haiti would accept the migrants back under his leadership.

“It has nothing to do with Haiti or anything else. You have to remove the people, and you have to bring them back to their own country,” he said.

“Springfield is such a beautiful place. Have you seen what’s happened to it? It’s been overrun. You can’t do that to people. I’d revoke (the protected status), and I’d bring (the migrants) back to their country.”

Voter Guide 2024: Breaking down the candidates, policies and issues

The comments come after Trump’s running mate, Republican Ohio Sen. JD Vance, revisited false claims he made about immigrants in Springfield, Ohio eating pets, saying now he is “concerned for the American citizens” in the city.

“In Springfield, and communities across this country, you have schools that are overwhelmed, housing that is totally unaffordable because we brought in millions of illegal immigrants to compete with Americans for scarce homes,” Vance said while debating Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz, his Democratic opponent, in the election’s only vice presidential debate.

Trump calls Jack Smith filing ‘pure election interference’
Enabling and protecting border law enforcement

The former president told NewsNation he would enable local law enforcement to execute what he calls the largest deportation in American history and potentially deploy military forces to combat drug cartels.

Trump said border agents “know everything about [migrants] … they know the good ones, the bad ones, and they’re going to get them out.”

Addressing cartel violence along the southern border, Trump proposed a “military operation” to counter increasingly sophisticated tactics by Mexican drug organizations, which reportedly now employ drone jammers and have been found with rocket-propelled grenades and improvised explosive devices near the border.

“They’re very rich, and they’re very evil,” Trump said of the cartels. “We’re going to have to get in some military action. … They’re killing 300,000 people a year.”

Two Mexican drug cartels have helped flood the United States with fentanyl, a synthetic opioid 80 times stronger than morphine that’s killing over 200 Americans daily, authorities say.

Exclusive: Mexican cartels using devices to disrupt U.S. drones

The Sinaloa and Jalisco cartels have established a sophisticated supply chain, sourcing precursor chemicals from China and manufacturing fentanyl in clandestine Mexican labs before smuggling it across the U.S. border, according to Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) reports.

Mexican drug cartels operating along the U.S.-Mexico border are using electronic devices to disrupt drones being used by U.S. border officials to track immigrants who crossed into the United States illegally, NewsNation learned.

In September 2023, Border Patrol agents in Texas discovered a backpack with what appeared to be cannonball-sized IEDs. It wasn’t the first time the U.S. government had found potential explosive devices at the border.

In May 2023, NewsNation reported border officials recovered a rudimentary device created using an M&M container that was bound with electrical tape.

The former president also praised GOP Texas Governor Greg Abbott’s border initiatives but maintained that border security ultimately requires federal action, stating, “All you have to do if you’re the president is say to the Border Patrol and to the states, ‘Nobody come in, it’s closed.'”

Trump predicted he would win New Mexico because of the southern border. Trump lost the state in 2020 by about 11 points and in 2016 by about 8 points.

Houston teens carjack driver to smuggle migrants
How many people are crossing the border?

U.S. Border Patrol arrests along the Southwest border rose slightly from July to August but remained among the Biden administration’s lowest monthly numbers.

According to U.S. Customs and Border Protection data, agents had 58,038 encounters between ports of entry in August, up from 56,399 in July.

The actual number of encounters at America’s borders is expected to reach about 10 million by the end of the fiscal year, including repeat crossings and deportations.

These encounters include repeat crossings and deportations, which means the actual number of unique individuals entering the country is much lower.

Walz, Vance spar on immigration
‘The largest deportation effort in American history’

One of Trump’s key promises if reelected is to mount the largest domestic deportation in U.S. history. He made similar promises when he first ran for office, but during his administration, deportations never topped 350,000.

For comparison, then-President Barack Obama carried out 432,000 deportations in 2013, the highest annual total since records were kept.

This time, Trump has given some more specifics on his promises. He said he’ll use the National Guard to round up migrants. And he said he would invoke the Alien Enemies Act, a 1798 law that allows the president to deport any noncitizen from a country that the U.S. is at war with.

He’s also vowed to kick out hundreds of thousands of immigrants who have entered the country under two key Biden administration programs if he’s reelected.

Any mass deportation plans would certainly be challenged in court and be enormously expensive to carry out. And it would depend on countries’ willingness to take back their citizens.

Trump also said he would bring back policies he had put in place during his first term, like the Remain in Mexico program and Title 42. Remain in Mexico made migrants wait in Mexico while their asylum cases were heard, while Title 42 curbed immigration on public health grounds.

He has said he’ll revive and expand a travel ban from his term that originally targeted citizens from seven Muslim-majority countries and pledged new “ideological screening” for immigrants to bar “dangerous lunatics, haters, bigots and maniacs.”

Trump also seeks to end birthright citizenship for people born in the U.S. whose parents are both in the country illegally.

DHS increases time for new asylum regulations

Why is the border a top voter issue?

Making the border safer and other immigration-related issues remain among the biggest concerns for voters heading into the 2024 election. Trump has used the border as a backdrop for a series of campaign stops in recent months.

Trump has repeatedly criticized President Joe Biden and Harris, claiming that the president and his “border czar” are to blame for the steady amounts of migrants and for the trouble that Trump has alleged has come specifically from the illegal border crossings.

The president has countered with the effectiveness of his executive order, which led to a drop in the number of border encounters after a record 250,000 encounters were reported in December 2023 alone.

There has been a significant drop in encounters between federal agents assigned to the U.S.-Mexico border and immigrants who have entered the country illegally.
Political gridlock on border policy

In June 2024, Biden released a series of executive actions capping migrant crossing until border encounters remain consistently low — under 2,500 per day for an entire week — to give Border Patrol more time to handle each migrant’s situation.

The president also clarified his use of executive powers, saying he was doing what Congress would not about a bipartisan immigration deal that failed in the Senate after Trump urged GOP lawmakers to vote against it.

NewsNation’s Jeff Arnold and The Associated Press contributed to this report.

Copyright 2024 Nexstar Media, Inc. 

Trump says he would revoke Temporary Protected Status for Haitian migrants in Springfield if elected

Rashard Rose and Kate Sullivan, CNN
Wed, October 2, 2024 



Former President Donald Trump on Wednesday said that he would revoke Temporary Protected Status for the Haitian migrants in Springfield, Ohio, and deport them if he is reelected in November.

“You have to remove the people, and you have to bring them back to their own country. They are, in my opinion, it’s not legal,” Trump said in an interview with NewsNation.

Trump, asked if he would revoke the migrants’ Temporary Protected Status, said,
“Absolutely. I’d revoke it, and I’d bring them back to their country.”

The former president and his allies have continued to spread misinformation about Haitian migrants in the city of Springfield.

Many Haitians came into the country under a Biden-Harris administration parole program that gives permission to enter to vetted participants with US sponsors. And many have “Temporary Protected Status,” as CNN has previously reported, which shields them from deportation and allows them to live and work in the country for a limited period of time.

Some received that protection after the Biden-Harris administration expanded the number of Haitians eligible in June. Others have been living in the US with Temporary Protected Status since before the Biden-Harris administration.

Trump, pressed in the Wednesday interview on what would happen if Haiti refused to receive them, said: “They will,” without providing additional details.

“Well, they’re going to receive them, they’ll receive them. If I bring them back, they’re going to receive them,” Trump said.

During the Trump administration, the Department of Homeland Security was aggressive in ending a number of temporary protected status designations that had been on the books, in some cases, for decades.

Trump in recent weeks has spread debunked conspiracy theories about Haitian migrants eating pets in Springfield, including at last month’s presidential debate, as part of his efforts to stoke fears about immigrants and push his hardline immigration policy proposals, including mass deportations.

From the September 10 debate through September 20, Springfield received more than 35 threats of violence, including bomb threats, according to Springfield Mayor Rob Rue. The threats prompted evacuations of elementary schools and supermarkets, lockdowns of hospitals and a transition to remote learning at several local colleges.

Rue, Ohio Republican Gov. Mike DeWine and other local officials have decried the rumors as false and destructive to the community. A staffer for Sen. JD Vance, Trump’s running mate who helped to propel the misinformation, was told early last month by Springfield City Manager Bryan Heck that “there was no verifiable evidence or reports to show” that the rumors are true, CNN reported.

The city of Springfield notes on its website that approximately 12,000 to 15,000 immigrants live in Clark County — which has a population of roughly 136,000 — and that Haitian immigrants are there legally.

Haitian workers play a significant role in Springfield’s economy, filling much-needed jobs, the city has said. DeWine has acknowledged the city was having some issues adjusting to the influx of mostly Haitian immigrants, but he said in an interview last month they were working to deal with the issues and called the Haitian immigrants “positive influences” on the community.

CNN’s Jack Forrest, Daniel Dale, Danya Gainor, Catherine E. Shoichet, Elizabeth Wolfe, Melissa Alonso, Jeff Winter and Chelsea Bailey contributed to this report.


Dominican Republic will deport up to 10,000 Haitians a week, citing an 'excess' of immigrants

Associated Press
Wed, October 2, 2024


Undocumented Haitians detained by immigration officials stand inside a police vehicle, in Dajabon, Dominican Republic, May 17, 2024. (AP Photo/Matias Delacroix, File)

SANTO DOMINGO, Dominican Republic (AP) — The Dominican Republic announced Wednesday that it would start massive deportations of Haitians living illegally in the country, expelling up to 10,000 of them a week.

Government spokesman Homero Figueroa told reporters that the government took the decision after noticing an “excess” of Haitian migrants in the Dominican Republic, which shares the island of Hispaniola with Haiti.

Figueroa said officials have seen an increase in Haitian migrants as a U.N.-backed mission in Haiti to fight gang violence flounders. He said authorities also agreed to strengthen border surveillance and control, but he did not provide details.

Last year, the Dominican Republic deported more than 174,000 people it says are Haitians, and in the first half of the year, it has expelled at least 67,000 more.

Activists have long criticized the administration of President Luis Abinader for what they say are ongoing human rights violations of Haitians and those of Haitian descent born in the Dominican Republic. Abinader has denied any mistreatment.

Wednesday's announcement comes a week after Abinader announced at the U.N. General Assembly that he would take “drastic measures” if the mission in Haiti fails. It is led by nearly 400 police officers from Kenya, backed by nearly two dozen police and soldiers from Jamaica and two senior military officers from Belize. The U.S. has warned that the mission lacks personnel and funding as it pushes for a U.N. peacekeeping mission instead.

Gangs in Haiti control 80% of the Port-au-Prince capital, and the violence has left nearly 700,000 Haitians homeless in recent years, while thousands of others have fled the country.

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Follow AP’s coverage of Latin America and the Caribbean at https://apnews.com/hub/latin-america

Thousands of shipping containers have been lost at sea. What happens when they burst open?

CHRISTINA LARSON, HELEN WIEFFERING and MANUEL VALDES
Wed, October 2, 2024

PHOTO ESSAY

LONG BEACH, Wash. (AP) — Russ Lewis has picked up some strange things along the coast of Long Beach Peninsula in Washington state over the years: Hot Wheels bicycle helmets with feather tufts, life-size plastic turkey decoys made for hunters, colorful squirt guns.

And Crocs — so many mismatched Crocs.

If you find a single Croc shoe, you might think somebody lost it out on the beach, he said. “But, if you find two, three, four and they’re different — you know, one’s a big one, one’s a little one — that’s a clue.”

These items aren’t like the used fishing gear and beer cans that Lewis also finds tossed overboard by fishers or partygoers. They’re the detritus of commercial shipping containers lost in the open ocean.

Most of the world’s raw materials and everyday goods that are moved over long distances — from T-shirts to televisions, cellphones to hospital beds — are packed in large metal boxes the size of tractor-trailers and stacked on ships. A trade group says some 250 million containers cross the oceans every year — but not everything arrives as planned.

More than 20,000 shipping containers have tumbled overboard in the last decade and a half. Their varied contents have washed onto shorelines, poisoned fisheries and animal habitats, and added to swirling ocean trash vortexes. Most containers eventually sink to the sea floor and are never retrieved.

Cargo ships can lose anywhere from a single container to hundreds at a time in rough seas. Experts disagree on how many are lost each year. The World Shipping Council, an industry group, reports that, on average, about 1,500 were lost annually over the 16 years they’ve tracked — though fewer in recent years. Others say the real number is much higher, as the shipping council data doesn’t include the entire industry and there are no penalties for failing to report losses publicly.

Much of the debris that washed up on Lewis’ beach matched items lost off the giant cargo ship ONE Apus in November 2020. When the ship hit heavy swells on a voyage from China to California, nearly 2,000 containers slid into the Pacific.

Court documents and industry reports show the vessel was carrying more than $100,000 worth of bicycle helmets and thousands of cartons of Crocs, as well as electronics and other more hazardous goods: batteries, ethanol and 54 containers of fireworks.

Researchers mapped the flow of debris to several Pacific coastlines thousands of miles apart, including Lewis’ beach and the remote Midway Atoll, a national wildlife refuge for millions of seabirds near the Hawaiian Islands that also received a flood of mismatched Crocs.

Scientists and environmental advocates say more should be done to track losses and prevent container spills.

“Just because it may seem 'out of sight, out of mind,’ doesn’t mean there aren’t vast environmental consequences,” said marine biologist Andrew DeVogelaere of California’s Monterey Bay National Marine Sanctuary, who has spent more than 15 years studying the environmental impact of a single container that was found in sanctuary waters.

“We are leaving time capsules on the bottom of the sea of everything we buy and sell — sitting down there for maybe hundreds of years,” he said.

Nitric acid, plastic pellets and baby seals

This year’s summer winds washed thousands of plastic pellets ashore near Colombo, Sri Lanka, three years after a massive fire aboard the X-Press Pearl burned for days and sank the vessel a few miles offshore.

The disaster dumped more than 1,400 damaged shipping containers into the sea — releasing billions of plastic manufacturing pellets known as nurdles as well as thousands of tons of nitric acid, lead, methanol and sodium hydroxide, all toxic to marine life.

Hemantha Withanage remembers how the beach near his home smelled of burnt chemicals. Volunteers soon collected thousands of dead fish, gills stuffed with chemical-laced plastic, and nearly 400 dead endangered sea turtles, more than 40 dolphins and six whales, their mouths jammed with plastic. “It was like a war zone,” he said.

Cleanup crews wearing full-body hazmat suits strode into the tide with hand sieves to try to collect the lentil-size plastic pellets.

The waterfront was closed to commercial fishing for three months, and the 12,000 families that depend on fishing for their income have only gotten a fraction of the $72 million that Withanage, founder of Sri Lanka’s nonprofit Centre for Environmental Justice, believes they are owed.

“Just last week, there was a huge wind, and all the beaches were full of plastic again,” he said in mid-June.

Lost container contents don’t have to be toxic to wreak havoc.

In February, the cargo ship President Eisenhower lost 24 containers off the central California coast. Some held bales of soon-waterlogged cotton and burst open. Debris washed ashore near Monterey Bay National Marine Sanctuary, a federally protected area.

The ship’s captain informed the U.S. Coast Guard, which worked with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration and California State Parks to remove the debris. Each bale was too heavy to drag away — instead they had to be cut up, each filling two dump trucks.

“A rancid soggy mess,” said Eric Hjelstrom, a chief ranger for California State Parks. “If tidal pools get filled with cotton, that can block out sunlight and harm a lot of organisms.”

One bale landed in an elephant seal nursery, surrounded by baby seals. “You have to be careful how to approach it – you don’t want to injure the seals,” Hjelstrom said. A marine mammal specialist gently escorted 10 pups away before the bale was removed.

Although the operators of the President Eisenhower helped pay for cleanup, neither California nor federal authorities have ordered the company to pay any penalties.

As for the metal shipping containers, only one was spotted on a U.S. Coast Guard overflight, and it had vanished from sight by the time a tugboat was sent to retrieve it, said Coast Guard Lt. Chris Payne in San Francisco.

When shipping containers are lost overboard, “Most of them sink. And a lot of times, they’re just in really deep water,” said Jason Rolfe of NOAA’s Marine Debris Program.

Most sunken containers — some still sealed, some damaged and open — are never found or recovered.

The Coast Guard has limited powers to compel shipowners to retrieve containers unless they threaten a marine sanctuary or contain oil or designated hazardous materials. “If it’s outside our jurisdiction,” said Payne, “there’s nothing that we can do as the federal government to basically require a company to retrieve a container.”

The long-term impact of adding on average more than a thousand containers each year to the world’s oceans — by the most conservative estimates — remains unknown.

Scientists at Monterey Bay Aquarium Research Institute in California are studying the cascade of changes wrought by a single container found by chance on the seabed.

Their research team was operating a remote-control vehicle at 4,200 feet (1,280 meters) below the surface to study deep-sea corals in 2004 when they were surprised to encounter a metal box. “It’s just serendipity that we found it,” said marine ecologist Jim Barry. Despite multiple spills in nearby shipping lanes, “It’s the only container that we know exactly where it landed.”

“The first thing that happens is they land and crush everything underneath them,” said DeVogelaere, who studied the sunken container. By changing the flow of water and sediment, the container completely changes the micro-ecosystem around it — impacting seafloor species that scientists are still discovering.

“The animals in the deep have felt our presence before we even knew anything about them,” he said.

Labels showed the container came from the Med Taipei, which had lost two dozen boxes in rough seas on a journey between San Francisco and Los Angeles. In 2006, the ship owners and operators reached a settlement with the U.S. Department of Justice to pay $3.25 million for estimated damages to the marine environment.

Steering floating skyscrapers at sea

More than 80% of international trade by volume arrives by sea. All this cargo travels on increasingly vast ships.

“On the modern big ships, it’s like a high-rise building,” said Jos Koning, a senior project manager at MARIN, a Netherlands-based maritime research organization that studies shipping risks.

Today’s largest cargo vessels are longer than three football fields, with cranes required to lift containers and stack them in towering columns. When the industry took off some 50 years ago, ships could hold only about a tenth of the freight that today’s behemoths carry. According to the insurer Allianz, container ship capacities have doubled in just the last two decades.

Greater size brings heightened risks. The largest ships are more difficult to maneuver and more prone to rolling in high waves. And there’s a greater chance that any single box could be damaged and crushed — a destabilizing accident that can send an entire stack of containers cascading into the sea.

In February, the marine insurer Gard published a study based on six years of their claims that showed 9% of ultra-large ships had experienced container losses, compared to just 1% of smaller vessels.

Accidents are often linked to cargo that has been inaccurately labeled, weighed or stored. Investigators determined that the X-Press Pearl’s devastating spill near Sri Lanka, for instance, was the result of a fire that likely started from a poorly stacked container that was leaking nitric acid.

But cargo ship operators don’t have the capacity to verify all container weights and contents, and instead must rely on information that shippers provide.

“It’s just completely impractical to think that you can open every container,” said Ian Lennard, president of the National Cargo Bureau, a nonprofit that works with the U.S. Coast Guard to inspect seagoing cargo.

In a pilot study, the group found that widespread mislabeling and improper stowage meant that nearly 70% of shipping containers arriving in the U.S. with dangerous goods failed the bureau’s safety inspection.

“Despite all these problems, most of the time it arrives safely,” Lennard said.

But when there is a crisis — a ship hits rough weather, or a container carrying a chemical ignites in summer heat — accidents can have catastrophic impacts.

High seas, high losses, but no definitive counts

How often do shipping container spills happen? There’s no clear answer.

Existing tracking efforts are fragmented and incomplete. Although a few shipwrecks and disasters grab headlines, like the March crash of a cargo ship into a Baltimore bridge, much less is known about how often containers are lost piecemeal or away from major ports.

To date, the most widely cited figures on lost shipping containers come from the World Shipping Council. The group’s membership, which carries about 90% of global container traffic, self-reports their losses in a survey each year.

Over 16 years of collected data through 2023, the group said an average of 1,480 containers were lost annually. Their recent figures show 650 containers were lost in 2022 and only about 200 last year.

Elisabeth Braw, senior fellow with the Atlantic Council’s Transatlantic Security Initiative, said self-reported surveys miss the full picture.

For example, not included in the 2023 tally were 1,300 containers from the cargo ship Angel, which sank near Taiwan’s Kaohsiung port. That’s because the ship’s operators aren’t members of the World Shipping Council.

Lloyd’s List Intelligence, a maritime intelligence company that’s tracked thousands of marine accidents on container ships over the past decade, told AP that underreporting is rampant, saying ship operators and owners want to avoid insurance rate hikes and protect their reputations.

Marine insurers, which are typically on the hook to pay for mishaps, likely have access to more complete data on losses – but no laws require that data to be collected and shared publicly.

World Shipping Council president and CEO Joe Kramek said the industry is researching ways to reduce errors in loading and stacking containers, as well as in navigating ships through turbulent waters.

“We don’t like when it (a container loss) happens,” said Kramek. “But the maritime environment is one of the most challenging environments to operate in.”

Earlier this year, the United Nations’ International Maritime Organization adopted amendments to two global ocean treaties aimed at increasing transparency around lost shipping containers. Those changes, expected to take effect in 2026, will require ships to report losses to nearby coastal countries and to authorities where the vessel is registered.

But with no enforceable penalties, it remains to be seen how extensively operators will comply.

Alfredo Parroquín-Ohlson, head of cargo in the IMO’s maritime safety division, said, “We just encourage them and tell them how important it is, but we cannot be a police.”

What floats above and what lies beneath

It’s not just environmentalists who worry. Some lost containers float for days before sinking — endangering boats of all sizes, from commercial vessels to recreational sailboats.

The sporting body World Sailing has reported at least eight instances in which crews had to abandon boats because of collisions with what were believed to be containers. In 2016, sailor Thomas Ruyant was 42 days into a race around the world when his sailboat’s hull split from a sudden crash with what appeared to be a floating container.

“It gives me the shivers just thinking about it,” he said in a video dispatch from his damaged boat as he steered toward shore.

In Sri Lanka, the consequences of the X-Press Pearl accident linger, three years after the ship went down.

Fishermen have seen stocks of key species shrink, and populations of long-lived, slow-reproducing animals such as sea turtles may take several generations to recover.

For his part, Lewis, the volunteer beach cleaner in Washington state, said he wonders about all the debris he doesn’t see wash up on his shores.

“What’s going to happen when it gets down deep and, you know, it just ruptures?” he said. “We know we’ve got a problem on the surface, but I think the bigger problem is what’s on the seafloor.”

 Long Beach Peninsula in Pacific County, Wash., Monday, June 17, 2024

AP Photos/Lindsey Wasson

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Larson and Wieffering reported from Washington, D.C. Bharatha Mallawarachi contributed reporting from Colombo, Sri Lanka.

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This story was supported by funding from the Walton Family Foundation and the Howard Hughes Medical Institute’s Science and Educational Media Group. The AP is solely responsible for all content.

 Sheinbaum, a 'child of 1968,' apologizes for historic 'atrocity' in Tlatelolco, Mexico City

Patrick J. McDonnell
Wed, October 2, 2024 

Demonstrators march in Mexico City in October 2019 in remembrance of the 1968 Tlatelolco student massacre, an event considered part of Mexico's "dirty war" — when the government used its forces to suppress political opposition. 

(Fernando Llano / Associated Press)


Calling herself a "child of 1968," Mexico's newly inaugurated President Claudia Sheinbaum issued a formal apology Wednesday for one of the country's most notorious episodes — the brutal repression and murder of student protesters 56 years ago in the capital's Tlatelolco district.

"We cannot forget Oct. 2," said Sheinbaum, who assumed office on Tuesday as the nation's first female president.

The “Tlatelolco massacre,” during which Mexican security forces opened fire on demonstrators, unfolded amid the global upheaval of the 1960s, notable for antiestablishment, antiwar and civil rights protests. Mexico's then-authoritarian leaders were keen to present an image of order and stability before the 1968 Summer Olympics, the first held in Latin America.

Soldiers stand guard on Oct. 12, 1968, for the opening ceremony of the Summer Olympics in Mexico City, days after soldiers opened fire on a peaceful demonstration that has come to be known as the "Tlatelolco massacre." (Associated Press)


Sheinbaum, a leftist activist, condemned the government's 1968 actions in remarks at her inaugural mañanera, or morning news conference, continuing the tradition of media sessions launched by her predecessor and mentor, Andrés Manuel López Obrador.

Read more: Shattering glass ceiling, Claudia Sheinbaum takes office as Mexico's first female president

Her initial mañanera, which featured a video recalling the events of 1968, lasted about an hour and a half — a contrast to the meandering, often-three-hour talkathons presided over by López Obrador, who stepped down Tuesday; under Mexico's Constitution, presidents can serve only one six-year term.

In her remarks on the anniversary of the 1968 massacre, Sheinbaum — who is also commander in chief of the armed forces — accused then-President Gustavo Díaz Ordaz of being responsible for the actions of soldiers and police who committed “one of the greatest atrocities that Mexico lived through in the second half of the 20th century.”

Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum gives a media briefing from the National Palace in Mexico City on Oct. 2. (Fernando Llano / Associated Press)

On the evening of Oct. 2, 1968, forces opened fire on thousands of demonstrators, mostly students, gathered in Tlatelolco’s central square, the Plaza of Three Cultures, named after the country’s Indigenous, European and mestizo formation.

The onslaught culminated weeks of student-led, pro-democracy protests, mirroring anti-Vietnam War protests that were jolting the United States and Europe. “One could hear the steady gunfire and the rattle of machine guns,” Elena Poniatowska, the acclaimed Mexican author, wrote in her 1971 chronicle, “The Night of Tlatelolco.” The plaza, she wrote, “was converted into a living hell.”

Early reports put the death toll at a few dozen, including students, soldiers and police. But human rights activists later said it was likely that more than 300 people, most of them students, were killed.

Read more: 1968 Massacre in Mexico Still Echoes Across Nation : Activism: Killing of students just before Olympics radically changed country. And questions continue.

Tlatelolco was for years a mostly taboo topic here. But, starting in the 1980s, the repression of 1968 was discussed more openly as demands for democratic change shook the dominance of the Institutional Revolutionary Party, or PRI, which ruled Mexico for most of the 20th century. Its candidates had inevitably posted crushing electoral triumphs — Díaz Ordaz was elected in 1964 with almost 90% of the popular vote.

Many here credit continuing outrage about Tlatelolco for helping to spur reforms in Mexico and the weakening of the PRI — and, ultimately, the rise of opposition governments in the 21st century as Mexico moved toward a more democratic path.

"The student movement of 1968 opened the doors for political participation for the young and all of society for a more democratic country," Sheinbaum said.


Mexican soldiers guard a group of young men rounded up after the October 1968 night that came to be known as the "Tlatelolco massacre." (Associated Press)

Sheinbaum is the standard-bearer of the National Regeneration Movement, known as Morena. The party, founded by López Obrador, who left the PRI decades ago during a reform upheaval, currently dominates Mexican politics. Ironically, many opponents now dub Morena the “new PRI," saying it has tried to cover up rising violence and "disappearances" and handed over unprecedented power to the military — a critique rejected by Sheinbaum.

Read more: Is the Mexican government hiding how many people have gone missing?

In issuing a government apology, Sheinbaum, who was a grade-schooler in Mexico City when the Tlatelolco massacre took place, acknowledged an "obligation" and personal motivation: Her mother, Annie Pardo Cemo, 84, participated in the 1968 protest movement as a professor at Mexico’s National Polytechnic Institute. The institute expelled Pardo for her involvement, Sheinbaum said.

Pardo, a biologist whose family fled Bulgaria during World War II, later became a professor at the Autonomous National University of Mexico — where her daughter, the future president, studied, taught and earned a doctorate in climate science.

Special correspondent Cecilia Sánchez Vidal contributed to this report.

This story originally appeared in Los Angeles Times.

Mexico’s first female president promises ‘no return to drug war’

DECRIMINALIZE DRUGS

Daniel Hardaker
Wed, October 2, 2024

Claudia Sheinbaum gives a speech during her swearing in ceremony - Carl de Souza/AFP via Getty Images


Mexico’s first female president promised that there will be no return to the “irresponsible” drug war between the government and the cartels.

Claudia Sheinbaum, 62, pledged more intelligence work and investigations to tackle surging drug-related violence during her swearing-in ceremony on Tuesday.

“There will be no return to the irresponsible drug war,” she said.

Tackling organised crime remains a key political issue in Mexico following the “hugs, not bullets” strategy of her predecessor Andrés Manuel López Obrador, the Left-wing populist.

After taking office in 2018, Mr Obrador declared Mexico’s war on drug cartels “over” and began a policy of addressing the “root causes” of violence.

Claudia Sheinbaum and Andrés Manuel López Obrador, the outgoing president - Mamahua3/AFP via Getty Images

Northern Mexico was thrown into chaos after weeks of deadly gun battles between two factions of the Sinaloa cartel, the country’s biggest and most powerful narcotics gang.

At least 50 people have been killed in the clashes, which began on Sept 9 in the city of Culiacan and have since spread to other parts of Sinaloa.

Mexico’s drug war is considered to have begun in 2006, when Felipe Calderón, then president, sent troops to the state of Michoacán to tackle drug violence.

In her inauguration speech in Mexico’s congress, Ms Sheinbaumo said: “It’s time for transformation, it’s time for women.

“I’m a mother, a grandmother, a scientist and a woman of faith, and from today, by the will of the Mexican people, the president.”

Claudia Sheinbaum (centre) during an inauguration event on Tuesday - Stephania Corpi/Bloomberg

She went on to promise limits on food and fuel prices, as well as an expansion of cash hand-out programmes for women and children.

Ms Sheinbaum was blessed and brushed with herbs and incense by Ernestina Ortiz, a “spiritual guide”, who told her: “You are a voice for all of us who had no voice for a long time.”

An Indigenous elder then handed Ms Sheinbaum a wooden Indigenous “staff of authority”.

After her speech, legislators shouted “Presidenta! Presidenta!”, using the feminine form of president in Spanish for the first time in more than 200 years of Mexico’s history as an independent country.

A scientist by training and the former mayor of Mexico City, Ms Sheinbaum won a landslide victory in June.

Trump Erupts in Incoherent Rants After New Court Brief Details How He ‘Resorted to Crimes’ to Defy 2020 Election

Ross A. Lincoln
Wed, October 2, 2024

A new court brief filed by Special Counselor Jack Smith on Wednesday provides extensive detail about how Donald Trump “resorted to crimes to try to stay in office” after the 2020 election, and Trump himself is pitching a fit over it.

Drawing from his usual tired collection of stock phrases and attacks on critics, Trump lashed out at “deranged” Smith and “Washington, D.C. based Radical Left Democrats” in multiple incoherent rants posted on Truth Social

To start, Trump complained that the filing is “falsehood-ridden, Unconstitutional,” and then slipped in an irrelevant insult against Democratic Vice Presidential candidate Tim Walz. After that, he swerved into randomly capitalized accusations that Democratic Presidential nominee Kamala Harris and President Joe Biden are the ones trying to “Weaponize American Democracy, and INTERFERE IN THE 2024 PRESIDENTIAL ELECTION.”

This culminated in a somewhat lazy effort to fling the court filing’s words back, when he said his enemies are “HELL BENT on continuing to Weaponize the Justice Department in an attempt to cling to power.

Then the former president followed that up with another Truth Social rant in which he insisted — referring to himself in third person of course — that he “is dominating” the 2024 race, and before you ask, yes he claimed that he’s polling ahead of Harris (as of this writing, he’s not). He also threw in his traditional references to “Deep State” and “Witch Hunt.”

After that came a lengthier ALL CAPS tirade that reads less like the statement of a functional former U.S. President, and more like drunken MAGA Mad Libs, which we’ll quote verbatim:

“WHETHER NOW THE FULLY DEBUNKED RUSSIA, RUSSIA, RUSSIA, IRAN, IRAN, IRAN, UKRAINE, UKRAINE, UKRAINE, 51 INTELLIGENCE AGENTS, SPYING ON MY CAMPAIGN, IMPEACHMENT HOAX NUMBER ONE, IMPEACHMENT HOAX NUMBER TWO, OR ANY OF THE OTHER SCAMS, THIS ILLEGAL ACTION TAKEN BY THE JUSTICE DEPARTMENT, INCLUDING THEIR RAID ON MAR-A-LAGO FOR A CASE THAT WAS DISMISSED, WILL END JUST LIKE ALL OF THE OTHERS – WITH COMPLETE VICTORY FOR ‘PRESIDENT DONALD J. TRUMP.’ MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN!” he posted.

Trump concluded by metaphorically taking his ball and going home, fuming “I didn’t rig the 2020 election, they did!”

Trump is not accused of rigging the election, he is being prosecuted for actions that were witnessed by millions: His efforts in 2020 and early 2021 to illegally overturn the election results, culminating in his incitement of the deadly Jan. 6, 2021 Capitol attack.

The prosecution of these crimes was delayed earlier this year thanks to the Supreme Court’s astonishing ruling in Trump v. U.S. that created a previously nonexistent concept of presidential immunity from criminal prosecution. This immunity was conferred upon vaguely defined “official” acts that SCOTUS said would need to be defined by lower courts, imposing delays that have virtually guaranteed Trump won’t face trial until after this year’s election.

Special Counselor Jack Smith submitted a revised indictment in August that accounts for Trump v. U.S.; the 165-page motion filed on Wednesday lays out the new case in (frequently redacted) detail.

It’s divided into four key sections. In the first, prosecutors describe their evidence against Trump. In the second, the legal issues surrounding presidential immunity are described. The third section expounds upon what is and is not covered by presidential immunity and emphasizes that “nothing the Government intends to present to the jury is protected by presidential immunity.” The fourth and final section describes why the court should rule Trump stand trial.

“The defendant asserts that he is immune from prosecution for his criminal scheme to overturn the 2020 presidential election because, he claims, it entailed official conduct. Not so,” the brief begins.

“When the defendant lost the 2020 presidential election, he resorted to crimes to try to stay in office,” the filing also reads. “His efforts included lying to state officials in order to induce them to ignore true vote counts; manufacturing fraudulent electoral votes in the targeted states; attempting to enlist Vice President Michael R. Pence, in his role as President of the Senate, to obstruct Congress’s certification of the election by using the defendant’s fraudulent electoral votes; and when all else had failed, on January 6, 2021, directing an angry crowd of supporters to the United States Capitol to obstruct the congressional certification.”

The common theme was “deceit” the filing continues.

“At its core, the defendant’s scheme was a private criminal effort,” Smith writes later in the filing. “In his capacity as a candidate, the defendant used deceit to target every stage of the electoral process, which through the Constitution, ECA, and state laws includes the states’ notification to the federal government of the selection of their representative electors based on the popular vote in the state; the meeting of those electors to cast their votes consistent with the popular vote; and Congress’s counting of the electors’ votes at a certification proceeding.”

Prosecutors believe Trump told his advisers in the weeks before the election in the event that many Democrats would cast their votes by mail and therefore their votes would be counted after Election Day, he would “simply declare victory before all the ballots were counted and any winner was projected.” An adviser, who remains unnamed, began to put the plan into motion.

Trump is also accused of having asked former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani to challenge the election’s integrity. Trump’s campaign also attempted to challenge Biden’s wins in swing states Arizona, Georgia and Michigan. The campaign then pushed claims of fraud that were untrue and attempted to appoint other electors in response.

“As late as January, the conspirators attempted to keep the full nature of the elector plan secret,” the filing also explains.

You can read the entire filing in full here.

Martin Sheen sounds the alarm on voter suppression from ‘MAGA vigilantes’
Judy Kurtz
Tue, October 1, 2024 at 9:05 AM MDT·5 min read

He’s been a vocal Vice President Harris supporter and is hitting the campaign trail to back several Democratic Senate bids, but Martin Sheen says he can’t think of “anything more important to do in relation to this year’s election” than sound the alarm on voter suppression from “MAGA vigilantes.”

Sheen, who famously portrayed President Jed Bartlet on NBC’s long-running political drama, “The West Wing,” is an executive producer of the new film, “Vigilantes Inc.: America’s New Vote Suppression Hitmen.”

The documentary-style project from journalist Greg Palast, currently streaming for free, “hones in on 8,500 self-proclaimed vigilante ‘vote-fraud hunters’ who have already challenged the rights of 851,000 voters of color in the 2024 election” in Georgia and beyond.

“If we have 2 million vigilante challenges, we don’t know how many will go through, but you have to understand the tiny margins of these states. And that’s the real threat to this election,” Palast told ITK in an exclusive joint interview with Sheen.

“This is something that we really need to expand the public’s knowledge on and make them aware that this is going on and how egregious and illegal, not to mention, immoral it is,” Sheen said.

“The fact that they are attacking newly registered voters — young people, people of color and immigrants, or people with foreign-sounding names — it’s very egregious, it’s racist and it’s going to have a powerful effect on the outcome of the election,” the actor said.

“Our purpose in making this film is to make sure that the voters — not the vigilantes — pick our next president,” Palast said.

“That’s the entire point. I’m not being partisan. I’m not trying to elect Kamala Harris. I’m trying to let the voters make that decision, not the vigilantes. And so we’re exposing them and helping people to save their votes,” the filmmaker and author added.

“Vigilantes” raises the possibility of the results of November’s presidential election being overturned by the Supreme Court. It’s a scenario that Sheen said he is “absolutely” concerned might play out.

“You can’t trust a lot of this villainy that has been sparked by this new fandangled Republican Party, whatever the hell it is. It used to be a fair fight in the old days. Now, it’s like it’s going on behind our backs, or under the seats, or wherever they can get away with whatever they get away with,” Sheen, 84, exclaimed.

The Emmy Award winner, a self-described “lifelong Democrat,” pointed to the 2020 White House race and the Jan. 6, 2021, riot by supporters of then-President Trump: “This crowd is criminal and immoral, and their efforts to subvert the vote — I mean, my God, look what happened to the last national election with the Capitol. And the results of that are still being felt.”

“We can’t trust them. They can’t trust themselves. So we have to be vigilant. And that’s part of what being involved in politics these days is being vigilant, and watch what’s going on and listen to what they say. But more importantly, watch what they do,” Sheen said.

“Don’t take anything for granted. These are scoundrels, and they’re not upfront, and they’re not fair, and they’re backed with billions and billions of dollars.”

Sheen said he “had not the slightest doubt” that Harris will win against Trump in November, saying he “wouldn’t even consider the alternative.”

Asked if “The West Wing” — which often depicted characters in both political parties as good-intentioned and trustworthy — was a naive fantasy, or if it’s more that politicians have changed since the show ended its run in 2006, Sheen replied, “I don’t think there’s anything Pollyanna-ish or naive about trying to express and expose the very best part of who we are, where we come from, what we stand for and what we mean to each other.”

“We relate to each other politically. The air we breathe, if it’s been fouled up, it’s a political act. So no one can remove themselves from the political reality of where we live and how we live at the present time. So it’s just a natural progression to be involved and to be clear about what we’re faced with,” Sheen said.

“Look at all this nonsense, this horrible crap they’re spreading in Springfield, Ohio,” Sheen said, a reference to Trump and his running mate, Sen. JD Vance (R-Ohio), repeating false allegations earlier this month about Haitian immigrants abducting and eating local pets. Last week, a Haitian group filed a criminal complaint against Trump and Vance, saying the amplification of the false claims had a “direct impact” in spurring 33 bomb threats in the Ohio city.

“I’m from Dayton, Ohio. I know Springfield,” Sheen said.

“My parents were both immigrants. I know what it’s like to grow up in an immigrant family where … you’re having to put your best foot forward every day because you’re being judged or not fully trusted. So I have an inkling of what that’s about — so you can’t get away with that crap,” the performer, whose mother was from Ireland and father was born in Spain, continued.

“I would suggest that Mr. Vance go to Springfield, Ohio, and find a family that’s been affected by his bulls— and has been forced to stay indoors and protect their children. He should apologize to those people and stay overnight in that house and beg their forgiveness,” Sheen said.

Palast said the aim of “Vigilantes” is to “educate voters to protect themselves” and ensure they “know the history of voter suppression, Jim Crow and slavery, which all connects back to vote suppression.”

“We’ve got to we’ve got to stay the course and keep swinging right to the end,” Sheen said.

Trump-supporting Republicans, Sheen said, will “contest anything they lose. They won’t contest anything they win — of course not. It’s what it is, and we have to stick to it like a stamp.”