On rare Haiti trip, Blinken pledges aid and calls for more support

On rare Haiti trip, Blinken pledges aid and calls for more support
US Secretary of State Antony Blinken walks with the Commander of the Multinational Security Support Mission Commander Godfrey Otunge and the Haitian National Police General Director Rameau Normal (L) at the MSS base in Port Au Prince, Haiti on September 05, 2024. (AFP)
Short Url
Updated 06 September 2024
Follow

On rare Haiti trip, Blinken pledges aid and calls for more support

On rare Haiti trip, Blinken pledges aid and calls for more support

PORT-AU-PRINCE: US Secretary of State Antony Blinken on a rare visit to violence-ravaged Haiti on Thursday heard guarded optimism as he promised $45 million in aid, urged greater international support for a new security mission and sought concrete action toward elections.

Blinken was the highest-ranking US official in nearly a decade to visit the country, which has been plagued by instability and whose capital had virtually been taken over by criminal gangs.

On Thursday, Blinken promised $45 million in humanitarian aid, but voiced concern about the long-term future of a Kenya-led police force that has been tasked with stabilizing Port-au-Prince and beyond.

He said he would convene talks at the United Nations later this month to raise support for the force, which arrived two months ago and is known as the Multinational Security Support Mission.

“At this critical moment, we do need more funding, we do need more personnel, to sustain and carry out the objectives of this mission,” he said.

Meeting Blinken, interim Prime Minister Garry Conille acknowledged that Haiti faced an “extremely complex” situation but voiced hope.

“If our partners bear with us, commit to us, we will achieve the goals. Progress we’ve achieved so far is actually quite remarkable,” he said.

The top US diplomat, too, saw reason for optimism.

“What I am seeing is tremendous resilience and the emergence — the reemergence — of hope,” Blinken said.

Speaking in French, Blinken addressed Haitians at a news conference: “We are with you.”

The senior US official zipped in an armored motorcade through crowded, pothole-ridden streets strewn with garbage for meetings in the safety of the US ambassador’s residence, after arriving at an airport where limited commercial flights only recently resumed.

Haiti has not held elections since 2016, widening a political vacuum that has worsened existing security and health crises.

In hopes of moving toward a more legitimate government, the United States and Caribbean nations recently worked to establish a transitional council representing key stakeholders, with Conille as interim prime minister.

“The critical next step that we talked about is setting up an electoral council. We hope to see that stood up soon,” Blinken told the coordinator of the transitional council.

Blinken acknowledged that greater security would be the “foundation” for all progress, including on elections.

The coordinator of the transitional council, Edgard Leblanc Fils, said he hoped to move toward the electoral council next week with a goal of elections in November 2025 and a transfer of power in February 2026.

“Progress has been made on security but there remains much to do,” Leblanc Fils said.

Gangs in recent years have taken over about 80 percent of the capital Port-au-Prince as any semblance of government evaporated.

US President Joe Biden’s administration has committed $360 million to the multinational mission meant to stabilize the country, including logistical support and equipment, but has also made clear it will not send US troops.

The mission is expected to include about 2,500 police officers, including from Bangladesh, Benin and Jamaica.

But its establishment was repeatedly set back both by a court in Kenya questioning the legality of the mission and by struggles to complete financing for the force, which is estimated to cost about $600 million per year.

To secure funding, the Biden administration has voiced willingness to make the mission a UN peacekeeping operation, after deliberately not putting the force under the UN flag due to grim past memories in Haiti.

The United Nations Stabilization Mission in Haiti, which deployed from 2004 to 2017, was tarnished by accusations of sexual abuse by peacekeepers and the force’s accidental introduction of cholera, which killed some 10,000 people.

As Blinken visited, Port-au-Prince was also facing a new energy challenge, with a key power plant going dark after being stormed by demonstrators angered by recurring blackouts.

Blinken also pressed Haitian leaders to take action against corruption, a serious concern in the country.

The last secretary of state to visit Haiti, John Kerry, met then-president Michel Martelly in 2015.

Last month, US authorities slapped sanctions on Martelly, who mostly lives in Miami, for allegedly trafficking drugs destined for the United States.

Blinken said that the action against Martelly showed that “we will use every tool that we have to hold accountable those who facilitate violence, drug trafficking, instability.”

The US secretary of state did not stay overnight in Haiti, landing in Santo Domingo on Thursday for meetings with leaders of the Dominican Republic.


Magnitude 5.8 earthquake hits off Indonesia’s East Nusa Tenggara

Magnitude 5.8 earthquake hits off Indonesia’s East Nusa Tenggara
Updated 4 sec ago
Follow

Magnitude 5.8 earthquake hits off Indonesia’s East Nusa Tenggara

Magnitude 5.8 earthquake hits off Indonesia’s East Nusa Tenggara
JAKARTA: A magnitude 5.8 earthquake hit off Indonesia’s East Nusa Tenggara province on Thursday, with a 10-kilometer (6.2-mile) depth and no tsunami potential, the country’s geophysics agency said.

There were no immediate reports of damage.

Taliban deny arresting or monitoring Afghans after UK data leak

Taliban deny arresting or monitoring Afghans after UK data leak
Updated 24 min 1 sec ago
Follow

Taliban deny arresting or monitoring Afghans after UK data leak

Taliban deny arresting or monitoring Afghans after UK data leak
  • The Taliban government said Thursday it had not arrested or monitored Afghans involved in a secret British resettlement plan

KABUL: The Taliban government said Thursday it had not arrested or monitored Afghans involved in a secret British resettlement plan after a data breach was revealed this week.

Thousands of Afghans who worked with the UK were brought to Britain with their families in a secret program after a 2022 data breach put their lives at risk, the British government revealed on Tuesday.

The scheme was only revealed after the UK High Court on Tuesday lifted a super-gag order banning any reports of the events.

UK Defense Minister John Healey said the leak was not revealed because of the risk that the Taliban authorities would obtain the data set and the lives of Afghans would be put at risk.

“Nobody has been arrested for their past actions, nobody has been killed and nobody is being monitored for that,” said the Afghan government’s deputy spokesman, Hamdullah Fitrat, in a voice message to reporters on Thursday.

“Reports of investigation and monitoring of a few people whose data has been leaked are false.”

After the Taliban swept back to power in 2021, their Supreme Leader Hibatullah Akhundzada announced an amnesty for Afghans who worked for NATO forces or the ousted foreign-backed government during the two-decade conflict.

“We don’t need to use the leaked documents from Britain. Regarding the general amnesty, nobody is investigated or monitored,” Fitrat added.

“The rumors being spread are just to scare these people and create fear and worry among their families, which we deny.”


France court orders release of Lebanese militant after four decades in prison

France court orders release of Lebanese militant after four decades in prison
Updated 51 min 44 sec ago
Follow

France court orders release of Lebanese militant after four decades in prison

France court orders release of Lebanese militant after four decades in prison

PARIS: A French appeals court Thursday ordered the release of pro-Palestinian Lebanese militant Georges Ibrahim Abdallah, who has been imprisoned for 40 years for the 1982 killings of two foreign diplomats.

Abdallah, 74, is one of the longest serving prisoners in France, where most convicts serving life sentences are freed after less than 30 years.

He has been up for release for 25 years, but the United States — a civil party to the case — has consistently opposed his leaving prison.

Abdallah was sentenced to life in prison in 1987 for his involvement in the murders of US military attache Charles Robert Ray and Israeli diplomat Yacov Barsimantov.

He has always insisted he is a “fighter” who battled for the rights of Palestinians and not a “criminal.”

The Paris Appeals Court ordered he be freed from a prison in the south of France next week, on Friday, July 25, on the condition that he leave French territory and never return.

Several sources before the hearing said that it was planned for him to be flown to Paris and then to Beirut.

Lebanese authorities have repeatedly said Abdallah should be freed from jail, and had written to the appeals court to say they would organize his return home.

The detainee’s brother, Robert Abdallah, in Lebanon told AFP he was overjoyed.

“We’re delighted. I didn’t expect the French judiciary to make such a decision nor for him to ever be freed, especially after so many failed requests for release,” he said.

“For once, the French authorities have freed themselves from Israeli and US pressures,” he added.

Prosecutors can file an appeal with France’s highest court, the Court of Cassation, but it is not expected to be processed fast enough to halt his release next week.

Abdallah’s lawyer Jean-Louis Chalanset also welcomed the decision.

“It’s both a judicial victory and a political scandal that he was not released earlier,” he said.

In November last year, a French court ordered his release conditional on Abdallah leaving France.

But France’s anti-terror prosecutors, arguing that he had not changed his political views, appealed the decision, which was consequently suspended.

A verdict was supposed to have been delivered in February, but the Paris appeals court postponed, saying it was unclear whether Abdallah had proof that he had paid compensation to the plaintiffs, something he has consistently refused to do.

The court re-examined the latest request for his release last month.

During the closed-door hearing, Abdallah’s lawyer told the judges that 16,000 euros had been placed on the prisoner’s bank account and were at the disposal of civil parties in the case, including the United States.

Abdallah still enjoys some support from several public figures in France, including left-wing members of parliament and Nobel prize-winning author Annie Ernaux, but has mostly been forgotten by the general public.


US senators approve $9 billion of Elon Musk’s federal cuts

 US senators approve $9 billion of Elon Musk’s federal cuts
Updated 17 July 2025
Follow

US senators approve $9 billion of Elon Musk’s federal cuts

 US senators approve $9 billion of Elon Musk’s federal cuts
  • US Senate approves package of spending cuts proposed by Trump cancelling more than $9 blln in funding for foreign aid programs and public broadcasting

WASHINGTON: The US Senate approved early Thursday a package of spending cuts proposed by President Donald Trump that would cancel more than $9 billion in funding for foreign aid programs and public broadcasting.

The upper chamber of Congress green-lit the measure in what was seen as the first test of how easily lawmakers could usher into law savings sought by Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) — in the aftermath of the tech mogul’s acrimonious exit from the government.

Despite the cutbacks’ unpopularity in some sections of both parties, the Republican-led Senate passed the measure with 51 votes for and 48 against in a session that went more than two hours past midnight.

The version of the text passed in June by the House of Representatives sought to eliminate $400 million in funding allocated to health programs, including the PEPFAR global AIDS relief fund created by then-president George W. Bush.

But defunding PEPFAR — which has saved an estimated 26 million lives — was seen as a nonstarter among a handful of moderate Republican senators, and the proposal was dropped.

South Carolina Senator Lindsey Graham told AFP the bill was consistent with Trump’s promises to cut spending.

“I’ve been a big fan of the foreign aid accounts... I’m a big hawkish guy, but you need foreign aid. You need soft power,” he said.

“But when you start spending money on a bunch of junk, and liberal programs disconnected from the purpose of the aid package, it makes it difficult on a guy like me.”

The bill now goes back to the House for final approval, with lawmakers up against the clock. Congress, which had already allocated the money, has to approve the cuts by Friday or the White House must spend the cash as originally intended.

Legislation to claw back money already approved by Congress — known as a “rescissions package” — is extremely rare, and no such measure has passed in decades.

Around a dozen Republicans had voiced concerns about allowing the White House to dictate spending cuts, placing them in the crosshairs of Trump, who last week threatened to withhold his endorsements from any rebels.

The vote was the first in what Republicans have touted as a potential series of packages codifying the spending cuts made by DOGE.

Musk was tapped by Trump to lead the task force after the tech billionaire spent $290 million helping him get elected. The SpaceX and Tesla boss boasted that he would be able to save $2 trillion in federal spending — but left the White House under a cloud in late May as he feuded with Trump over deficits and spending.

DOGE acknowledges that it has saved taxpayers just $190 billion — and fact checkers even see that claim as dubious, given previous inaccuracies in its accounting.

The rescissions package slashes around $8 billion in foreign aid, with much of that approved for humanitarian organization USAID, one of DOGE’s first targets. 

Around $1 billion is to be taken back from the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, which helps fund National Public Radio (NPR) and the Public Broadcasting Service (PBS), as well as more than 1,500 local radio and television stations.

Conservatives often accuse PBS and NPR of bias, and Trump signed an executive order in May to cease federal funding for both networks. Democrats say cutting the funding will not meaningfully reduce the deficit, but instead dismantle a trusted source of information for millions of Americans.

“It is yet another example of the spirit and ideals of our Constitution being undermined in a terrible way. We are a nation that believes that (Congress) has a real role,” New Jersey Senator Cory Booker told AFP.

“And this is a bunch of my colleagues in thrall of the president, surrendering the powers of us, and the urgency for us to work together and do it in a bipartisan way to improve budgets.”


Who were the two pilots who flew the Air India jet that crashed?

Who were the two pilots who flew the Air India jet that crashed?
Updated 17 July 2025
Follow

Who were the two pilots who flew the Air India jet that crashed?

Who were the two pilots who flew the Air India jet that crashed?
  • Veteran captain and young co-pilot named in Air India crash investigation
  • Cockpit recording suggests fuel supply was manually cut before Boeing 787 went down

A cockpit recording of dialogue between the two pilots of the Air India flight that crashed last month indicates the captain cut the flow of fuel to the Boeing 787 jet’s engines, the Wall Street Journal reported on Wednesday.

Below is a brief profile of the two pilots based on the preliminary investigation report and media reports:

CAPTAIN SUMEET SABHARWAL

The 56-year-old had an airline transport pilot’s license that was valid until May 14, 2026.

He had obtained clearances to fly as pilot-in-command on several aircraft including the Boeing 787 and 777 and the Airbus A310.

He had total flying experience of 15,638 hours, of which 8,596 hours were on a Boeing 787.

Sabharwal had called his family from the airport, assuring them he would ring again after landing in London, according to a Times of India report. A pilot who had briefly interacted with him told Reuters he was a “gentleman.”

FIRST OFFICER CLIVE KUNDER

The 32-year-old had a commercial pilot license that was issued in 2020 and valid until September 26, 2025.

He had obtained clearances to fly Cessna 172 and Piper PA-34 Seneca aircraft as pilot-in-command and as co-pilot on Airbus A320 and Boeing 787 jets.

He had total flying experience of 3,403 hours. Of that, 1,128 hours of experience were as a 787 co-pilot.

Since his school-going days Kunder was passionate about flying, and in 2012, began serving as a pilot, Indian media reported, citing his relatives. He joined Air India in 2017.