Wretchard.com

What’s a sovereign nation to do?

When Moïse came to power in February 2017, he had little or no access to some of the economic levers that two of his predecessors, Joseph Michel Martelly and René Garcia Préval, had enjoyed. The latter were able to benefit from more than US$4 billion from the PetroCaribe fund, as well as from the largesse of international funding for development projects. In comparison, Moïse’s means for financing development projects for the country were limited.

After its president was assassinated, Haiti needs international help more than ever

The current chaos in Haiti can be explained by the country’s political, institutional, economic and security conditions.

This is true for the much-worried-over Delta variant. It is also true for all the other variants, and for the original strain. Most remarkably, it has been known to be true since the very earliest days of the pandemic — indeed it was among the very first things we did know about the disease. The preliminary mortality data from China was very clear: To children, COVID-19 represented only a vanishingly tiny threat of death, hospitalization, or severe disease.

The Kids Were Safe the Whole Time

Why we should rethink COVID safety protocols for children — and everyone else.

But on July 12 Merkel expressed doubt the upcoming talks with Biden would resolve the disagreement between Berlin and Washington over Nord Stream 2. … U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken on June 23 reiterated warnings about Nord Stream 2 during meetings in Berlin with Merkel and Foreign Minister Heiko Maas. Blinken said he and Maas agreed that concrete steps were needed to “ensure that Russia cannot use energy as a coercive tool directed at Ukraine or anyone else in Europe.”

Merkel Says Gas Will Transit Ukraine Even After Nord Stream 2 Finished

German Chancellor Angela Merkel has sought to assure Kyiv that Ukraine will remain a transit route for natural gas even after completion of the Nord Stream 2 pipeline linking Russia to Germany.

The price of oil surged to $75 a barrel the other day under President Joe Biden’s green energy policies. The price was as low as $35 a barrel under former President Donald Trump because he believed in American energy dominance (“Drill, baby, drill”). So, more oil meant lower prices at the pump. It was effectively a massive, multibillion-dollar tax cut for lower- and middle-income earners of tens of billions of dollars a year.

OPEC and Big Oil’s New Best Friend, Joe Biden | RealClearPolitics

The price of oil surged to $75 a barrel the other day under President Joe Biden’s green energy policies. The price was as low as $35 a barrel under former…

Thanks to a “wobble” in the moon’s orbit and rising sea levels, every coast in the United States will face rapidly increasing high tides that will start “a decade of dramatic increases in flood numbers” in the 2030s.

Brace for flooding. A moon ‘wobble’ is coming, NASA warns

NASA says rising sea levels mixed with the increase of high tides because of the moon’s orbit will cause major flooding throughout the U.S. coastline.

‘For the people that are protesting and looting, please do so carefully and please do so responsibly. Because you cannot hold people responsible for defending what they love,’ Zuma said. The 37-year-old, who has his own ambitions to run the country, said that ‘finger pointing’ was not going to help because the government must ‘feed the poor people that are looting’ as he blamed lockdown-fuelled economic inequity for the chaos.

Jacob Zuma’s son urges looters to do so ‘responsibly’

Jacob Zuma’s son has urged looters to ‘do so responsibly’ and called for his father to be freed after South Africa’s lawlessness entered its sixth consecutive day.

NetBlocks metrics show that communications platforms WhatsApp, Facebook, Instagram and as well as some Telegram servers are disrupted on government-owned ETECSA (Empresa de Telecomunicaciones de Cuba, S.A. / AS27725) including Cubacel, the cellular network operated by Cuba’s sole telecommunications company. Findings corroborate user reports of disruptions to the services.

Social media restricted in Cuba amid widening anti-government protests – NetBlocks

Network data from NetBlocks confirm partial disruption to social media and messaging platforms in Cuba from 12 July 2021. The targeted restrictions are likely to limit the flow of information …

The old global world is going down. Biden’s political challenge is how to avoid becoming the Chernenko of a collapsing edifice. He will either transition to a new, more sustainable political order or go down in history as the captain of the new Titanic.

Biden’s remarks disappoint leaders in Havana. Before Biden came to office, they hoped he would follow in President Barack Obama’s footsteps and thaw relations with the island, reversing Trump’s actions that tightened the Cold War-era U.S. embargo.

On the campaign trail, Biden said he would reverse policies on Cuba that “have inflicted harm on the Cuban people and done nothing to advance democracy and human rights.”

Joe Biden wounds Cuba, Venezuela and China’s hopes of Obama-style detente

The American president said the U.S. stands with Cuban protesters and condemned “decades of repression” by “Cuba’s authoritarian regime.”

More than 1200 people have been arrested in the lawlessness that has raged in poor areas of two provinces, where a community radio station was ransacked and forced off the air Tuesday and some COVID-19 vaccination centres were closed, disrupting urgently needed inoculations.

Many of the deaths in Gauteng and KwaZulu-Natal provinces occurred in chaotic stampedes as thousands of people stole food, electric appliances, liquor and clothing from stores, police Major General Mathapelo Peters said in a statement Tuesday night.

Death toll spirals in South Africa as desperation sets in

More than a thousand people have been arrested in the lawlessness that has raged since the imprisonment of former President Jacob Zuma.

New at the Belmont Club. Is the geriatric Washington mindset able to cope with a changed world?

The Crumbling Global Tower

Not pulling out of the dive

“At times, one of the suspects in the assassination of Haitian President Jovenel Moïse was a confidential source to the DEA,” the DEA said in a statement.

Several tied to Haiti assassination plot were previously US law enforcement informants

Several of the men involved in the operation that killed Haiti’s president previously worked as US law enforcement informants, according to people briefed on the matter, as US investigators grapple with an increasing number of Florida links to the alleged hit squad.

Jimmy Cherizier, a former police officer known as Barbecue who heads the so-called G9 federation of nine gangs, railed against police and opposition politicians whom he accused of colluding with the “stinking bourgeoisie” to “sacrifice” Mr Moïse.

Haiti’s president ‘riddled’ with bullets in the ‘blink of an eye’, wife says

As Haiti descends into further unrest, the widow of the slain President gives a graphic account of his final minutes.

Haiti (AP) — Gangs in Haiti have long been financed by powerful politicians and their allies — and many Haitians fear those backers may be losing control of the increasingly powerful armed groups who have driven thousands of people from their homes as they battle over territory, kill civilians and raid warehouses of food.

Gangs complicate Haiti effort to recover from assassination

PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti (AP) — Gangs in Haiti have long been financed by powerful politicians and their allies — and many Haitians fear those backers may be losing control of the increasingly powerful armed groups who have driven thousands of people from their homes as they battle over territory, kill…

Thousands of Cubans took part in rare protests Sunday against the communist government, marching through a town chanting “Down with the dictatorship” and “We want liberty.”

The protest in San Antonio de los Banos, a town of some 50,000 people southwest of Havana, came as Cuba is experiencing its toughest phase yet of the coronavirus epidemic, the same day it reported a new daily record of infections and deaths.

Thousands join rare anti-government protests in Cuba – France 24

Thousands join rare anti-government protests in Cuba

According to Colombian paper the president had been dead an hour before commandos showed up.

Haití: ‘Colombianos llegaron después del asesinato del Presidente’

Informante asegura que incluso llevaron a la primera dama al hospital. ¿Qué hay de cierto?

From the NYT

On the streets, vigilantes prowled for suspects, and the police killed at least three people in gunfights. The vast majority of those arrested have turned out to be from Colombia — former military men said to have turned mercenaries — as questions arose about why it had been so easy for attackers to burst into President Jovenel Moïse’s home and kill him, seemingly with no shots fired from security staff.

Haiti Calls U.S. for Troops, After Wild Day of Gunfights and Suspicion

At least 20 people were arrested in the assassination of the Haitian president — 18 Colombians and 2 Americans of Haitian descent — on a day of deepening mystery.

MIAMI — An American arrested in connection to the assassination of Haiti’s president worked alongside Sean Penn to rebuild the country from a devastating earthquake in 2010, according to three people familiar with the Hollywood actor’s decade-old relief drive…

The two people said James Solages worked as a driver and in a security capacity for J/P Haitian Relief Organization, which was started by Penn following the magnitude 7.0 earthquake in 2010 that killed more than 300,000 people in the impoverished Caribbean nation.

The Latest: American arrested in Haiti worked alongside Penn

The latest developments in the assassination of Haitian President Jovenel Moïse: —— MIAMI — An American arrested in connection to the assassination of Haiti’s president worked alongside Sean Penn to rebuild the country from a devastating earthquake in 2010, according to three people familiar with th…

A lone security guard at the Taiwanese embassy in Haiti was responsible for the arrests of 11 suspects in the assassination of president Jovenel Moïse, after a group of heavily armed commandos invaded the diplomatic compound the evening after the murder.

Inside Taiwanese embassy siege in Haiti: how a lone security guard helped wrangle 11 suspects

The guard’s harrowing ordeal helps shed light on the bloody aftermath of Jovenel Moïse’s assassination