Global politics

[DJChameleon]

What are everyone's thoughts on what's going down in Haiti?

Haiti's surge in gang violence has led more than 53,000 to flee the capital in less than three weeks

I don't buy reports of cannibalism, I think that's a completely overblown narrative to generate clicks, but it is certainly a tragedy what's happening.

So I heard that the root problem of what's going on is easy access to guns from America.

They get them here much cheaper then sell them for way higher prices in Haiti which gangs can now afford from all their criminal enterprises. The better guns they acquire the more power they gain. Higher caliber weapons are flowing through Haiti atm.

[Psy-Fi]

Senior UK lawmaker falls victim to a sexting scam

[jimmy jazz]

a senior Conservative admitted disclosing the personal phone numbers of some colleagues to an unknown individual who held "compromising" material on him.

Sounds like another noncing Tory.

[Psy-Fi]

A second UK lawmaker says he was targeted in a sexting scam. Police are investigating

Politico said some of those targeted were sent naked images, with at least two reported to have responded by sending images of themselves.

My advice is to never upload or post anything online that you wouldn't want your own mother to see.

[jimmy jazz]

A second UK lawmaker says he was targeted in a sexting scam. Police are investigating



My advice is to never upload or post anything online that you wouldn't want your own mother to see.

😂 I've been on the Internet for decades. It's too late to start now.

[Jwb]

What are everyone's thoughts on what's going down in Haiti?

Haiti's surge in gang violence has led more than 53,000 to flee the capital in less than three weeks

I don't buy reports of cannibalism, I think that's a completely overblown narrative to generate clicks, but it is certainly a tragedy what's happening.

The gangs in Haiti aren't just normal street gangs. They have political ties and are comprised of a lot of ex military. Haitis actual military was disbanded in the 90s due to human rights violations. All they have is the national police, which are severely undermanned and under equipped to instill order in the country. The gangs arguably comprise the largest armed force in what is basically a failed state. In addition, as Haitis official government continues to lose its grip on power, the gangs have also in some cases stepped in and filled the role of providing basic services that would usually fall to the state, such as running schools or clinics. So this does raise the obvious question of whether they are best conceptualized as mere gangs or as the earliest building blocks of a sort of proto-government.

The gangs have been applying violent pressure on Haiti's  president, Ariel Henry, to step down. It seems to have worked. Henry just recently relinquished power. He had taken power after the previous president (Moise) was assassinated under dubious circumstances. Moise had just named Henry as his PM days before the assassination, only adding to the suspicions.  Among those arrested for the murder were 18 Colombian mercenaries.

In addition, Henry had been linked to one of the main suspects (Joseph Badio) in the murder who was later arrested in 2023 and is essentially believed to be the one to put the hit out on Moise via the Colombian mercenaries mentioned earlier.

When Henry was confronted by Port-au-Prince's chief persecutor over the fact that he had had a phone call with  Badio just hours after the killing, he fired said prosecutor. That was a mere few months after the July 2021 assassination.

Since then, Haiti has been ruled by an illegitimate government with little popular support that was being propped up by the United States and other interested parties.

Henry has been calling for help from western powers for a while. He wanted an international force to step in and put down the gangs, lead by the UN. U.N. forces have occupied the country twice in semi recent history. Once in 93-96 and again in 2004-2017. After their forces left, the power vacuum allowed for the rise of the gangs to their recent levels of power. As it stands the country has one of the lowest ratios of police to civilians in the entire world.

With the U.N. not willing to directly take the lead on this most recent operation, they are looking instead to basically shop it out to another country that will send a force of their own people while being funded by the United States. There was an agreement in place with Kenya to send around 1000 troops, but last I heard the Kenyans are having some second thoughts. Whether they are genuinely looking to back out or holding out for hopefully more money isn't exactly clear. It could be a combination of motivations. But in any case it the prospect of them stabilizing the country with 1000 troops that don't speak the native language nor have any sort of connection or ties to the local population was always dubious at best.       

[SGR]

The gangs in Haiti aren't just normal street gangs. They have political ties and are comprised of a lot of ex military. Haitis actual military was disbanded in the 90s due to human rights violations. All they have is the national police, which are severely undermanned and under equipped to instill order in the country. The gangs arguably comprise the largest armed force in what is basically a failed state. In addition, as Haitis official government continues to lose its grip on power, the gangs have also in some cases stepped in and filled the role of providing basic services that would usually fall to the state, such as running schools or clinics. So this does raise the obvious question of whether they are best conceptualized as mere gangs or as the earliest building blocks of a sort of proto-government.

The gangs have been applying violent pressure on Haiti's  president, Ariel Henry, to step down. It seems to have worked. Henry just recently relinquished power. He had taken power after the previous president (Moise) was assassinated under dubious circumstances. Moise had just named Henry as his PM days before the assassination, only adding to the suspicions.  Among those arrested for the murder were 18 Colombian mercenaries.

In addition, Henry had been linked to one of the main suspects (Joseph Badio) in the murder who was later arrested in 2023 and is essentially believed to be the one to put the hit out on Moise via the Colombian mercenaries mentioned earlier.

When Henry was confronted by Port-au-Prince's chief persecutor over the fact that he had had a phone call with  Badio just hours after the killing, he fired said prosecutor. That was a mere few months after the July 2021 assassination.

Since then, Haiti has been ruled by an illegitimate government with little popular support that was being propped up by the United States and other interested parties.

Henry has been calling for help from western powers for a while. He wanted an international force to step in and put down the gangs, lead by the UN. U.N. forces have occupied the country twice in semi recent history. Once in 93-96 and again in 2004-2017. After their forces left the power vacuum allowed for the rise of the gangs to their recent levels of power. As it stands the country has one of the lowest ratios of police to citizens in the entire world.

With the U.N. not willing to directly take the lead on this most recent operation, they are looking instead to basically shop it out to another country that will send a force of their own people while being funded by the United States. There was an agreement in place with Kenya to send around 1000 troops, but last I heard the Kenyans are having some second thoughts. Whether they are genuinely looking to back out or holding out for hopefully more money isn't exactly clear. It could be a combination of motivations. But in any case it the prospect of them stabilizing the country with 1000 troops that don't speak the native language nor have any sort of connection or ties to the local population was always dubious at best.       

An excellent summary, thanks for that! Summarized much more concisely than any recent news article I've read about the situation and its context.

From the sounds of it, I'd guess that Ariel Henry had the backing of the American CIA, and they, in a sense, overtrhew the previous government via assassination.

[Jwb]

I'm not so sure it goes that deep but I honestly have been recently learning about it myself.

Thing is, it seems more plausible to me that Henry just acted on his own and then the US stepped in to help him stay in power. The reason I say so is because as alluded to by the various occupations, transitions of power etc I referenced from the point of 1993 - now, instability is an unshakable trend in Haitian politics. So  it's already not hard to imagine a Haitian leader being taken out by one of his rivals in a hired killing.

Also, the US hasn't exactly been desperate to keep Henry in power. They give very minimal and tepid attempts at stabilizing the current situation because it's really bad for their position, and in an election year on top of it. But the reason they aren't more gung ho about going down and setting things straight is cause we've tried that like a half dozen times before. They just want the situation to go away.

[Psy-Fi]

Protesters in southern Mexico set state government building afire and torch a dozen vehicles

[Psy-Fi]

Kangana Ranaut, actor and BJP election candidate, denies eating beef

[Psy-Fi]

Haiti police recover hijacked cargo ship in rare victory after 5-hour shootout with gangs

[jimmy jazz]

https://www.bbc.com/news/world-middle-east-68796363

Iran about to smash Israel.

[Psy-Fi]

https://www.bbc.com/news/world-middle-east-68796363

Iran about to smash Israel.

Is the Shiite ready to hit the fan?

[Psy-Fi]

Spain will scrap 'golden visas' that allow wealthy non-EU residents to stay if they buy real estate

[SGR]

I doubt Iran will attack a population center. If they do, Israel will wipe out their leadership - and this would be the most opportune time for them to do so, and Iran must know that. All Iran needs to do is give them a reason.