Kenya’s Ruto lands in Haiti to assess police mission as insecurity deepens
Kenyan President William Ruto has landed in the Haitian capital to assess a Kenya-led security mission in the Caribbean nation, a day after a United Nations expert warned that Haiti faced deepening violence and insecurity. In a statement on Saturday, a spokesperson for Ruto said the Kenyan leader would “visit and commend the Kenyan contingent working alongside their Haitian counterparts”. Ruto also planned to meet with Haiti’s transitional presidential council and other officials, Hussein Mohamed said in a social media post. The visit to Port-au-Prince comes about three months after the first Kenyan officers arrived in Haiti as part of a UN-backed, multinational mission aimed at tackling a surge in gang violence. Haiti has reeled from years of violence as armed groups – often with ties to the country’s political and business leaders – have vied for influence and control of territory. An uptick in attacks across Port-au-Prince at the end of February prompted the resignation of Haiti’s unelected prime minister, the creation of the transitional presidential council and the deployment of the Kenyan police deployment. President @WilliamsRuto arrives in Port-au-Prince, Haiti, 100 days after flagging off the Kenyan police contingent of the Multinational Security Support Mission (MSS) to Haiti. The President is in Haiti to assess the progress of the MSS mission, visit and commend the Kenyan… — Hussein Mohamed, MBS. (@HusseinMohamedg) September 21, 2024 Yet despite the presence of Kenyan and other foreign police officers in the country, insecurity remains rampant, with armed groups believed to still control about 80 percent of Port-au-Prince. As of August, more than 578,000 Haitians had been internally displaced, largely due to the violence, according to data (PDF) from the International Organization for Migration (IOM). Displaced families have been forced to live in squalid conditions as they wait to safely return to their homes. On Friday, William O’Neill, a UN human rights expert on Haiti, said the country faced a dire humanitarian crisis as the armed groups continued to exert influence and carry out attacks. He said the UN-backed mission – formally known as the Multinational Security Support Mission (MSS) – had so far deployed less than a quarter of its planned force. The mission’s mandate expires early next month. “The equipment it has received is inadequate, and its resources are insufficient,” O’Neill said at the end of a visit to the country. For its part, the Haitian National Police continues to lack “logistical and technical capacity to counter the gangs”, he said. “This enduring agony must stop. It is a race against time,” O’Neill said of the situation. It remains unclear what will happen when the UN-backed mission’s mandate expires in early October. The United States, the deployment’s key backer, has been pushing to get more funding and personnel to bolster the force. “The United States has been actively working to secure this additional support,” US Secretary of State Antony Blinken, who visited Port-au-Prince in early September, recently said. Blinken added that he plans to convene a meeting at the UN General Assembly this month “to encourage greater contributions to help meet Haiti’s security needs, its economic needs, its humanitarian needs, as well as to renew the mission’s mandate”. Citing unnamed sources, The Miami Herald reported on September 4 that Washington was exploring the possibility of transitioning the mission into a UN peacekeeping operation. “In coordination with partners, the United States is exploring options to bolster the Multinational Security Support mission and ensure the support that the MSS is providing Haitians is sustained long-term and ultimately paves the way to security conditions permitting free and fair elections,” a national security official told the US newspaper. Many Haitians remain wary of UN interventions, however, saying past deployments have brought more harm than good. A deadly 2010 cholera outbreak was linked to a UN peacekeeping base, for example, while past UN forces have been accused of sexual abuse. The UN-backed security mission also ran into numerous delays and met initial criticism. But Haitian civil society groups have said help is needed to stem the violence. They have added that a security deployment alone cannot solve systemic problems in the country, and urged safeguards to be put in place to prevent possible abuses by the international police force. Adblock test (Why?)
Israeli explosion rocks Beirut, crossing another red line for Hezbollah
An Israeli explosion has rocked southern Beirut, crossing another so-called red line for Hezbollah. The killing of senior commanders and civilians is another major breach of security for the group, with Lebanon already on edge for years. Its foreign minister told an emergency meeting of the UN Security Council that nobody is safe. With Israel diverting its focus and forces to the north, is it preparing a ground invasion for what it calls the “second phase of the war” on Gaza? How much of a blow is all this for Hezbollah? And is the region already at war? Presenter: James Bays Guests: Nicholas Noe – editor-in-chief of the Beirut-based Mideastwire.com Sami Nader – director of the Levant Institute for Strategic Affairs Samuel Ramani – associate fellow at the Royal United Services Institute’s Middle East programme Adblock test (Why?)
Earth to get a mini-moon for two months, but what is it?
From late September until late November this year, a “mini-moon”, called 2024 PT5 by the astrologers who spotted it approaching will be orbiting the planet. Although this mini-moon cannot be seen by the naked eye – it is just 10 metres (33ft) in diameter – it can be viewed through a high-powered telescope. Mini-moons are asteroids which have been pulled by the Earth’s gravity into orbit around the planet and remain there until they become dislodged and move away again. The length of time these mini-moons remain in orbit depends on the speed and trajectory with which they approach the Earth. Most mini-moons that enter Earth’s orbit are hard to see because they are too small and not bright enough to be seen against the backdrop of the darkness of space. What, exactly, is a mini-moon? Mini-moons are extremely rare. Asteroids are usually pulled into Earth’s orbit by the gravity of the planet as rarely as once in 10 to 20 years, but a few more have appeared in recent years. They can remain in the exosphere, which is roughly 10,000km (6,200 miles) above the surface of the Earth. On average, mini-moons remain in Earth’s orbit for anything from a few months to two years with the asteroid eventually breaking away from Earth’s gravitational pull, then moving back into space to resume a trajectory away from the planet. Similar to other rocky bodies in space, mini-moons can be composed of a mixture of metallic substances, carbon, clay and silicate material. According to a 2018 mini-moons study published in the Swiss journal, Frontiers in Astronomy and Space Sciences, most mini-moons come towards Earth from the asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter. Unlike Earth’s permanent moon, mini-moons do not have stable orbits. Instead, they embark on a “horseshoe” orbit path as a result of the asteroids being constantly pulled forwards and backwards by the gravity of Earth. [embedded content] This orbital instability allows the asteroids to gradually move farther away from Earth’s gravitational pull. Once the mini-moon has escaped Earth’s gravitational pull, it is released back into space. Although mini-moons are usually rare, several have been identified within Earth’s orbit since 2006. In that year, 2006 RH120, the Earth’s first confirmed mini-moon with a diameter of about 2 to 4 metres was captured in Earth’s orbit for roughly a year. This was the only mini-moon to have been photographed. The Southern African Large Telescope (SALT) was used to capture the image of it. It was spotted by the Catalina Sky Survey (CSS) which was established by NASA using telescopes near Tucson, Arizona in 1998 to search for “near-Earth objects”. Visitors view the 91 hexagonal mirror segments that make up the array of the Southern African Large Telescope (SALT) near Sutherland in South Africa’s arid Karoo region on November 10, 2005, just months before it captured the first image of a mini-moon in 2006 [Mike Hutchings/Reuters] The 2022 NX1 mini-moon, with a diameter of somewhere between 5 and 15 metres was first seen in 1981, then again in 2022. It is expected to return to Earth’s orbit to take up a horseshoe orbital path again in 2051. What do we know about the latest mini-moon? The asteroid currently approaching the planet is known as 2024 PT5. It was first spotted on August 7 using the NASA-funded Asteroid Terrestrial-impact Last Alert System (ATLAS) located at the Haleakala Observatory on the island of Maui, Hawaii. The system continuously scans the sky while identifying and tracking near-Earth objects that might either pose a threat to the Earth or provide an opportunity to gather significant scientific knowledge. “Every time an object with an orbit so Earthlike is discovered, there is a chance that we are just recovering space debris,” said Raul de la Fuente Marcos, an astronomer at the Complutense University of Madrid and a co-author of the study. However, astronomers from the study have now confirmed that 2024 PT5 is an asteroid. Astronomers have determined that the mini-moon will complete a trajectory around the Earth from September 29 to November 25, before ultimately breaking free from Earth’s gravitational pull before heading into space. Are there other types of moon? Apart from our permanent moon, which can appear in different forms depending on conditions, there are some other types of “moon”. Ghost moons Also known as Kordylewski clouds, ghost moons are concentrations of dust that are typically found in the Lagrangian points in the Earth-moon system. These Lagrangian points, sometimes known as gravitational “sweet spots”, are where the gravitational forces of the Earth and the moon meet, allowing the ghost moon to maintain a stable position. These clouds can measure as much as 100,000km across and were first discovered by Polish astronomer Kazimierz Kordylewski in the 1960s using a technique called polarimetry, measuring the direction of how light waves vibrate. These dust clouds were later confirmed in 2018 by the Royal Astronomical Society. (Al Jazeera) Quasi-moons These moons share an orbit with Earth around the Sun but do not orbit the Earth themselves. Instead, a quasi-moon follows a path around the Sun that closely matches Earth’s orbit, but is not an exact match. In 2016, HO3, a quasi-moon, was discovered by astronomers using the Pan-STARRS 1 telescope in Hawaii. Pan-STARRS (Panoramic Survey Telescope and Rapid Response System) is a project designed to detect near-Earth objects such as asteroids or comets, which come from further afield than the asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter. 2016 HO3 is between 100 and 300 metres in diameter and, according to scientists, will continue to orbit the Sun for hundreds of years. It is not known how long it has already been orbiting the Sun. Other celestial bodies, such as planets, moons and asteroids, can also be orbited by quasi-moons. Venus, Jupiter, Saturn, Neptune and Pluto all have quasi-moons which will eventually change their paths and leave orbit. Even the asteroid Ceres, currently located in the constellation of Sagittarius and classified as a dwarf planet with a diameter of approximately 940km (about
Japan orders thousands to evacuate quake-hit region as rains trigger floods
A dozen rivers burst their banks in Ishikawa where the meteorological agency issued its highest alert level. Japanese authorities have told tens of thousands of people to evacuate the earthquake-hit region of Ishikawa as “unprecedented” rains triggered floods and mudslides. The Japan Meteorological Agency (JMA) on Saturday issued its highest alert level for Ishikawa and public broadcaster NHK reported that two people were reported missing in the prefecture’s Wajima city due to the flooding. The fire department reported receiving several rescue calls in the cities of Wajima and Suzu, in central Japan’s Noto peninsula, which were among the areas hardest hit by a New Year’s Day earthquake that killed at least 236 people. About 44,700 people have already been ordered to evacuate in Wajima and Suzu, as well as Noto town, officials said. JMA forecaster Satoshi Sugimoto told reporters that the areas under the warning were seeing “heavy rain of unprecedented levels”, adding “it is a situation in which you have to secure your safety immediately.” Another 16,000 residents in Niigata and Yamagata prefectures north of Ishikawa were also told to evacuate, the agency said. Hourly rainfall came to a record 121mm (4.8 inches) on Saturday morning in Wajima, while neighbouring Suzu saw 84.5mm in an hour, also an all-time high. Video footage aired by NHK TV showed brown floodwaters turning streets into rivers in Wajima, with cars half submerged. At least 12 rivers in Ishikawa breached their banks on Saturday, according to the Land and Infrastructure Ministry. Power company officials said nearly 6,000 households in Ishikawa were left without electricity, NHK reported. Weather agency officials warned people in the affected areas to exercise “maximum caution” amid flooding and said possible mudslides could be “life-threatening”. Scientists say human-driven climate change is intensifying the risk of heavy rains in the country and elsewhere because a warmer atmosphere holds more water. The region is still reeling from the magnitude-7.5 quake that toppled buildings, ripped up roads and led to a major fire. Adblock test (Why?)
US lawmaker Rashida Tlaib slams racist image of her with exploding pager
Cartoon published in National Review would ‘incite more hate and violence against our Arab and Muslim communities’. Palestinian-American Congresswoman Rashida Tlaib has condemned as racist a cartoon that depicts her with a detonating pager, days after thousands of communication devices exploded across Lebanon in attacks blamed on Israel. “Our community is already in so much pain right now. This racism will incite more hate + violence against our Arab & Muslim communities, and it makes everyone less safe,” Tlaib said of the cartoon published in conservative magazine National Review. “It’s disgraceful that the media continues to normalize this racism,” the only Palestinian-American lawmaker in the United States Congress wrote on X on Friday. Created by Henry Payne, the cartoon shows a woman sitting at a desk with a name card reading “Rep. Tlaib” where a device explodes. The woman remarks: “ODD. MY PAGER JUST EXPLODED.” Thank you, Mayor @AHammoudMI, for speaking up. Our community is already in so much pain right now. This racism will incite more hate + violence against our Arab & Muslim communities, and it makes everyone less safe. It’s disgraceful that the media continues to normalize this… https://t.co/JTn2mur4Yj — Rashida Tlaib (@RashidaTlaib) September 20, 2024 The illustration alludes to attacks in Lebanon on Tuesday and Wednesday when thousands of pagers and walkie-talkies exploded killing at least 37 people and wounding nearly 3,000, including civilians. After the attacks, Tlaib shared a post by fellow Democratic Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez referring to it as a clear violation of “international humanitarian law”. Tlaib, a Democrat from Michigan in the US House of Representatives who is a vocal critic of Israel’s war on Gaza, has often weathered harsh vitriol from Republican and some Democratic opponents, including baseless accusations of sympathies with Hamas. In November, Tlaib was formally censured by the House, a step just below expulsion, for allegedly “promoting false narratives” about the Gaza war and “seeking Israel’s destruction”, charges she rejects. Tlaib said at the time she “will not be silenced and I will not let you distort my words”. Tlaib voiced her support on Thursday for Palestinians in the Gaza Strip, criticising her colleagues in the US Congress for their silence as US-funded weapons continue to fuel bloodshed in the besieged enclave. “We are living through one of, again, the most documented horrific crimes against humanity in our history. These are children who did not live to see their first birthday. We cannot normalize this,” said Tlaib. “My colleagues continue to be silent. I wonder if it’s because these babies are Palestinian? They’re children, that’s it,” she added. Adblock test (Why?)
More than 70 killed in Mali attack: What happened, why it matters
An estimated 77 people have been killed in an attack on Mali’s capital, Bamako, according to the AFP news agency. About 200 others were injured in the attack, which took place on Tuesday and caused hospitals to be overwhelmed with wounded patients, a diplomat who asked to remain anonymous told the news agency. It’s unclear how the victims were wounded; however, residents reported gunshots and explosions. There was also smoke from apparent fires coming from buildings. Malian authorities closed Modibo Keita International Airport after the attack. Mali’s military government downplayed the incident with officials stating the situation was “under control” and the attack had been repelled. Officials later admitted the military had suffered casualties. State TV station ORTM showed images of about 20 suspects believed to have been involved in the attack wearing blindfolds and with their hands tied. It was reported they had been captured by the military. “The sweep continues,” army Chief of General Staff Oumar Diarra said. What happened in the attack? Malian authorities said an armed group attacked an elite military police training school in the Faladie district of Bamako as well as a military base close to the airport early on Tuesday. Gunshots rang out in the city centre, and smoke billowed into the sky from what appeared to be fires the fighters had lit in buildings and other infrastructure, according to some accounts. Responsibility for the attack has been claimed by the al-Qaeda-linked Jama’at Nusrat al-Islam wal-Muslimin (JNIM). The group’s stated aims include to “remove oppression” and expel non-Muslim “occupiers”, referring to Western influence in the country, such as foreign troops stationed in Mali. It also operates in Burkina Faso and Niger. https://x.com/ali_naka/status/1835949989522190422 JNIM members appeared to have killed scores of Malian soldiers and Russian fighters from the Wagner mercenary group during the nine hours the attack is believed to have lasted for. The Wagner Group, now called Africa Corps, is deployed in the country to assist the government in repelling armed groups. JNIM posted videos of the assault on social media sites. The clips showed fighters setting fire to a government airplane and firing on an plane owned by a United Nations aid organisation, the World Food Programme (WFP). Videos also showed dozens of apparently dead soldiers, including white soldiers presumed to be Russians. https://x.com/YoroDIA18/status/1836391875340591559 While JNIM claimed to have taken control of the airport and the surrounding area on Tuesday, the Malian authorities said on state broadcasting networks later in the day that the attack had been repelled. JNIM claimed a few dozen of its members were killed during the assault and it had been able to wound hundreds of Malian soldiers and Russian fighters. UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres condemned the attack and confirmed that one UN staff member had been injured. The African Union, Senegal, France and the United Kingdom denounced the violence. WFP spokesperson Djaounsede Madjiangar confirmed the damage to the aircraft he said was used to “transport aid workers and provide emergency humanitarian aid in remote areas of Mali”. The airplane was on the ground at the time and had no personnel in it. Madjiangar said the attack “reduces our humanitarian response capacity”. #Mali / #Bamako: Les terro-ristes au milieu des avions à l’aéroport Bamako Sénou. #SahelLeaks pic.twitter.com/jPniwYnoBM — SahelLeaks (@SahelLeaks) September 17, 2024 Why is this attack significant? The attack happened in Bamako, the capital and seat of the military government, and specifically targeted military bases. Such a high-profile attack on Bamako has not happened in years. While Mali has been beset by violence from several armed groups since 2012, including JNIM and the ISIL (ISIS) affiliate in the Greater Sahara (ISGS), it has been concentrated in the northern and central parts of the country, hundreds of kilometres from the southwestern capital. The last time a high-profile attack was carried out in the city was in 2015 when fighters targeted foreigners at a nightclub in March and again at the Radisson Blu Hotel in November. A civilian government was in power at the time, and French forces were assisting the army. Five people were killed and nine injured in the nightclub attack. Twenty people were killed in the Radisson Blu attack. Both attacks were carried out by the al-Mourabitoun armed group, which has now merged with the Ansar Dine and Macina Liberation Front groups to form JNIM. A guest leaves the Radisson Blu Hotel in Bamako on November 21, 2015, after retrieving his belongings one day after a deadly attack [Issoufo Sanogo/AFP] The groups have seized large swaths of land in central and northern parts of the country and tax civilians in occupied communities. Groups like JNIM also launch incursions into neighbouring Burkina Faso and Niger. Like Mali, the two countries have been ruled by their militaries since 2021. How has violence by armed groups been countered before now? France, a former ally of Bamako, deployed thousands of soldiers to Mali in 2013 and to neighbouring countries. In addition, the UN deployed the 11,000-man peacekeeping force MINUSMA (UN Multidimensional Integrated Stabilization Mission in Mali). The forces together were able to seize territories from the armed groups and hold them, but attacks like those in 2015 persisted, causing general dissatisfaction among Malians. In 2020, forces led by Colonel Assimi Goita seized power in a military coup while blaming the civilian government of President Ibrahim Boubacar Keita for not doing enough to ease the worsening insecurity caused by the armed groups. When anti-French sentiment began to rise in the region around 2015, partly due to continued attacks by armed groups, Goita ordered French forces and MINUSMA to leave. The troops started withdrawing in 2022 and completed their exit by December last year. Goita’s government has instead turned to Russia’s Wagner forces for support. There are now about 2,000 Wagner fighters in the country. Although the Russians, along with Malian soldiers, have been accused of human rights violations, the collaboration has seen Mali regain some territory from armed groups, especially in the north, analysts said. What other major losses have
Israeli forces kill dozens across Gaza as tanks advance deeper into Rafah
At least 13 people, including children, were killed in Israeli attacks on two homes in Rafah, medical sources say. Israeli forces have killed at least 27 Palestinians in tank and air attacks across Gaza, as tanks advanced further into northwest Rafah near the border with Egypt. The unrelenting Israeli attacks in the enclave continued on Friday, even as a parallel conflict in the Lebanon-Israel border area involving Hamas’s allies Hezbollah intensified. In the southern city of Rafah, at least 13 Palestinians, including three children, were killed in Israeli air raids on two residential properties in the Mesbah area, medical sources told Al Jazeera. Al Jazeera’s Tareq Abu Azzoum, reporting from Deir el-Balah in central Gaza, said the two properties were completely destroyed in the attack. “Civil defence crews are scrambling to reach the scene of the attack as fighting between Hamas and Israel rages in the area,” he said. “There are still people buried in the debris.” Tanks advanced further to the northwest area of Rafah backed by aircraft, residents told the Reuters news agency. Heavy fire and explosions echoed in the eastern areas of the city, where Israeli forces blew up several houses, according to residents and Hamas media. “Our fighters are engaged in fierce gun battles against Israeli forces, who advanced into Tanour neighbourhood in Rafah,” Hamas’s armed wing said in a statement. Separately, Palestinian health officials said shelling by Israeli tanks killed eight people and wounded several others in the Nuseirat refugee camp in the central area of Gaza, and six others were killed in an air raid on a house in Gaza City. In the northern town of Beit Hanoon, an Israeli attack on a car killed and wounded several Palestinians, medics said. The Israeli military has said that forces operating in Rafah have killed hundreds of Palestinian fighters, located tunnels and explosives and destroyed military infrastructure in the last few weeks. The United States and mediators Qatar and Egypt have attempted to secure a truce between Israel and Hamas for months, but have failed to bring about a final agreement. Two obstacles have been especially difficult – Israel’s demand that it keep forces in the Philadelphi Corridor between Gaza and Egypt, and the specifics of an exchange of Israeli captives for Palestinian prisoners held by Israel. Israel’s latest war on Gaza began after October 7, when Hamas fighters entered Israel, killing 1,200 people and taking about 250 captives, according to Israeli tallies. Since then Israel has been relentlessly attacking the enclave, killing more than 41,000 Palestinians, according to the local health ministry, while displacing nearly the entire population of 2.3 million, causing a hunger crisis and leading to allegations of genocide at the World Court, which Israel has denied. Adblock test (Why?)
Israel strikes Beirut suburb in latest attack in Lebanon
NewsFeed At least 12 people were killed and dozens injured in an Israeli strike in a Beirut suburb on Friday, with the Israeli military claiming to have a killed a senior Hezbollah commander. Published On 20 Sep 202420 Sep 2024 Adblock test (Why?)
Components for pagers used in Lebanon blasts not from Taiwan, minister says
CEO of Taiwan-based Gold Apollo released after questioning over role in deadly explosions. Components used in thousands of pagers that detonated on Tuesday in Lebanon in a deadly blow to Hezbollah were not made in Taiwan, Taiwan’s economy minister has said. Taiwan-based Gold Apollo said this week it did not manufacture the devices used in the attack, and that Budapest-based company BAC to which the pagers were traced has a licence to use its brand. It was not clear how or when the pagers were weaponised so they could be remotely detonated. The same applies to the hundreds of hand-held radios used by Hezbollah that exploded on Wednesday in a second wave of attacks. The two incidents killed 37 people and wounded about 3,000 in Lebanon. “The components are (mainly) low-end IC (integrated circuits) and batteries,” Taiwan’s Economy Minister Kuo Jyh-huei told reporters on Friday. When he was pressed on whether the parts in the pagers that exploded were made in Taiwan, he said, “I can say with certainty they were not made in Taiwan,” adding the case is being investigated by judicial authorities. Security sources said Israel was responsible for the pager explosions on Tuesday that raised the stakes in a growing conflict between the two sides. Israel has not directly commented on the attacks. Taiwan’s Foreign Minister Lin Chia-lung, also speaking to reporters at parliament, answered “no” when asked if he had met with the de facto Israeli ambassador to express concern about the case. “We are asking our missions abroad to raise their security awareness and will exchange relevant information with other countries,” Lin said. As Taiwanese authorities look into any potential link between its sprawling global tech supply chains and the devices used in the attacks in Lebanon, Gold Apollo’s president and founder, Hsu Ching-kuang, was questioned by prosecutors late into the night on Thursday, then released. Another person also at the prosecutor’s office was Teresa Wu, the sole employee of a company called Apollo System, who did not speak to reporters as she left late on Thursday. Hsu said this week a person called Teresa had been one of his contacts for the deal with BAC. A spokesperson for the Shilin District Prosecutors Office in Taipei told the Reuters news agency that it had questioned two people as witnesses and was given consent to conduct searches of their firms’ four locations in Taiwan as part of its investigation. “We’ll seek to determine if there was any possible involvement of these Taiwanese companies as soon as possible, to ensure the safety of the country and its people,” the spokesperson said. Iran-aligned Hezbollah has pledged to retaliate against Israel, which has not claimed responsibility for the detonations. The two sides have been engaged in cross-border warfare since conflict in Gaza erupted last October. Adblock test (Why?)
The pager bombings – everyday tech that kills
[unable to retrieve full-text content] Attacks against Hezbollah with booby-trapped pagers and two-way radios, blamed on Israel, are new in scale, not approach