[News] News From Other Places!

It's news you can use from places with different views! (Don't misuse or abuse you yahoos.)

Cuba asks UN for help as food shortages worsen

Cuba's government has for the first time asked the UN's food programme for help as food shortages on the Communist-run island worsen.

The World Food Programme (WFP) said it had received an unprecedented official request from the Cuban government for help providing powdered milk to children under seven years of age.

The request is a sign of the seriousness of Cuba's economic crisis.

As well as a shortage of milk, fuel and medicines are also running low.

The WFP confirmed to Spanish news agency Efe that it been approached by the Cuban government to "continue the monthly delivery of 1kg [35oz] of milk for girls and boys under the age of seven throughout the country".

The WFP said it had already started delivering milk powder to the island.

Powdered milk and other basic foods are provided to Cubans at a subsidised price through ration books, but delays and lack of supplies are common, especially at times of economic hardship.

The system was first introduced in 1962 by Cuban leader Fidel Castro after the United States imposed sanctions on the island, which exacerbated shortages.

The Cuban government continues to blame the ongoing US sanctions for the dire state of its economy but critics say government mismanagement is behind the current economic crisis - the worst in three decades.

Last year, Vice-Prime Minister Jorge Luis Tapia Fonseca did concede that progress in making Cuba more self-sufficient was lagging and blamed Cuban workers, whom he said lacked a "culture of productivity".

"Work is needed to produce food. We all expect to be sent food, but we do nothing to produce it," he said in July.

Shortages of milk have become worse since, with interior commerce minister Betsy Díaz warning earlier this month that deliveries for children aged between six months and two years had been delayed.

She said that the government was "working daily to find alternatives".

Milk is not the only thing Cubans are struggling to get hold of. A shortage of fuel led to the annual May Day parade - arguably the biggest annual mass celebration on the island - being cancelled last year.

And from Friday, the fuel that is available will cost five times as much as a price hike comes into effect.

Robear wrote:

But talking to minorities in the city, the story is very different, and even just walking around, casual racism is on display everywhere. It felt like going back into my childhood. But did I like being there? Yeah. I felt safe and accepted, while others around me were nervous to talk about their experiences as non-Whites, and would only do so at times when Whites were not around.

Sorry, I'm confused - you mean this as an analogy explaining the situation of non-Japanese in Japan, right? I.e. the group that I'm a part of?

Let's face it: governments love to talk about these crises but don't love to do anything to fix them. Because they're controlled by the rich and powerful and have little interest in the rest of us.

Quintin_Stone wrote:

Let's face it: governments love to talk about these crises but don't love to do anything to fix them. Because they're controlled by the rich and powerful and have little interest in the rest of us.

It’s more than the rich and powerful though. Xenophobia is incredibly popular. Racial identity is important to people and they use it as reasons for exclusion even to the point of extinction.

Mr GT Chris wrote:

Turkey Refugee Statistics 1960-2024

Turkey refugee statistics for 2022 was 3,568,259.00, a 5.09% decline from 2021.

On a lighter note, I find it amusing that every single refugee statistic on that webpage ends with ".00", as if someone was expecting that some country or another is sooner or later going to admit only a fraction of a refugee.

Haiti’s weekend of violence puts government future in doubt

The future of Haiti’s government appeared increasingly uncertain on Monday, after armed gangs attacked the country’s international airport and freed more than 3,800 prisoners this weekend in what appears to be a coordinated effort to topple the prime minister, Ariel Henry.

Haitian officials declared a three-day state of emergency and imposed a nightly curfew in an effort to calm the growing unrest but national police are outgunned, and senior officials – including Henry, who is also acting president – are outside the country.

The emergency decree was issued after a deadly weekend that marked a new low in Haiti’s spiral of violence, and which has led the US to advise its citizens to leave “as soon as possible” and Canada to temporarily close its embassy.

Jimmy Chérizier, a former elite police officer known as Barbecue who now runs an alliance of gangs, has claimed responsibility for the attacks, saying the goal was to capture Haiti’s police chief and government ministers and prevent Henry’s return.

At least nine people have been killed since Thursday, among them four police officers. Targets have included police stations, the country’s international airport and the national football stadium, where one employee was held hostage for hours.

The UN estimates that about 15,000 people were forced to flee the violence between Thursday and Saturday, including those already in makeshift camps for displaced people set up in schools, hospitals and squares around the capital, Port-au-Prince.

The mass escape of convicted criminals and high-profile gang leaders was a brazen show of force by the country’s street gangs and represents a critical moment for international efforts to shore up the government and restore order in the Caribbean nation, analysts said.

“We might be witnessing a turning point right now, as the gangs appear to be joining forces to overthrow the government and send a message of intimidation to the politicians who are away not to return,” said Diego Da Rin, Haiti analyst at International Crisis Group.

Singapore's exclusive deal with Taylor Swift not a hostile act towards neighbours, PM says.

SYDNEY, March 5 (Reuters) - Singapore Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong said on Tuesday an incentive provided to Taylor Swift to make Singapore the only stop in Southeast Asia on her world tour was not a hostile act towards its neighbours.

"(Our) agencies negotiated an arrangement with her to come to Singapore and perform and to make Singapore her only stop in Southeast Asia," Lee told a press conference in Melbourne, where he is attending a regional summit.

"It has turned out to be a very successful arrangement. I don't see that as being unfriendly."
Swift is currently part way though six sold-out shows in Singapore, her only stop in Southeast Asia.
Singapore's government previously said it had given Swift a grant to play in the city-state, without mentioning the terms of the deal.

The announcement annoyed other countries in the region, with the Thai prime minister saying the grant was made on condition that it would be Swift's only show in Southeast Asia, while a Filipino lawmaker said it "isn't what good neighbours do".

No piece of science fiction could have predicted civil and regional conflicts starting over Taylor Swift.

Oooh, totally forgot to mention this!

Thousands of Korean doctors face license suspensions as Seoul moves to prosecute strike leaders

SEOUL, South Korea (AP) — Thousands of striking junior doctors in South Korea faced proceedings to suspend their medical licenses Tuesday, as authorities are pushing for police investigations targeting leaders of the walkouts that have disrupted hospital operations.

Nearly 9,000 of South Korea’s 13,000 medical interns and residents have been refusing to work for the last two weeks to protest a government plan to enroll thousands more students in the country’s medical schools in coming years. The government ordered them to return to work by Feb. 29, citing a threat to public health, but most have defied threats of license suspensions and prosecutions.

“For those who lead the walkouts, we are thinking we’ll file complaints with police,” Vice Health Minister Park Min-soo told a briefing. “But I tell you that we haven’t determined exactly when we would do so and against whom.”

On Monday, the Health Ministry sent officials to hospitals to confirm the absences of the striking doctors to begin administrative steps to suspend their licenses. So far, the government has formally confirmed the absences of more than 7,000 strikers, and on Tuesday, officials were to continue on-site inspections of hospitals and begin sending notices to some strikers about license suspension proceedings, Park said.

Park said the striking doctors’ licenses would be suspended for at least three months, and doctors are to be given opportunities to respond before suspensions take effect.

“The trainee doctors have left their patients defenseless. They’ve even left emergency rooms and intensive care units,” Park said. “We can’t tolerate these irresponsible acts. They have betrayed their professional and ethical responsibilities and neglected their legal duties.”

Under South Korea’s medical law, doctors who defy orders to resume work can be punished with three years in prison or a 30 million won (roughly $22,500) fine, as well as a up to one-year suspension of their medical licenses. Those who receive prison sentences can lose their licenses.

Observers say the government will likely end up punishing only strike leaders, not all of the thousands of striking doctors. They say it would take a few months to complete the administrative steps to suspend the licenses of all the 9,000 striking doctors.

At the heart of the dispute is a government plan to raise the country’s medical school enrollment quota by 2,000 starting next year, from the current 3,058. Officials said South Korea must add more doctors to deal with a fast-aging population. But many doctors say universities aren’t ready to deal with that abrupt increase in the number of students and that the country’s overall medical service would be eventually hurt.

The striking junior doctors are a small fraction of the country’s 140,000 doctors, but they account for 30-40% of the total doctors at some major hospitals, where they assist senior doctors while training.

Many senior doctors support the junior doctors but haven’t joined their walkouts.

South Korean police said they are investigating five senior members of the Korea Medical Association, after the Health Ministry filed complaints against them for allegedly inciting and abetting the junior doctors’ walkouts.

If you think that walkouts have disrupted hospital operations, wait til you find out what happens when you suspend the medical licenses of thousands of doctors.

China’s ‘two sessions’ 2024: defence budget signals military readiness, not imminent war, experts say

The 7.2 per cent growth earmarked for China’s military budget for this year is the same as 2023 and shows Beijing is not preparing for imminent war, but is taking strategically cautious steps to defend its interests, analysts said.

The budget was released by the Ministry of Finance on Tuesday as Premier Li Qiang addressed the opening session of the National People’s Congress.

In his work report, Li outlined ramped up support for war readiness through expansion of reserve forces.

He also stressed the need for military loyalty, following one of the largest purges in the defence ministry in recent years.

The world’s second-biggest military budget, which is set to grow to 1.67 trillion yuan (US$232 billion), according to the ministry, is closely watched as China faces multiple tensions in the South China Sea and the Taiwan Strait, as well as continued friction in its rivalry with the United States.

“The growth of China’s military expenditure is consistent with the growth of GDP,” Yue Gang, a retired colonel from the People’s Liberation Army (PLA) said, adding the spending was a solid foundation for the “steady” development of national defence and military expansion.

China’s GDP growth target this year was set at around 5 per cent, similar to last year’s goal.

Gang rape of Spanish tourist in India sparks debate on prevalence of sexual violence: ‘all women are at risk’

An alleged incident involving the heinous gang rape of a Spanish travel influencer in India has reignited public outrage and sparked an intense debate on social media regarding what is seen as an enduring rape culture in the country.

According to police, the woman and her husband were staying the night in the Dumka district of India’s eastern state of Jharkhand when they were attacked by seven men. The woman was sexually assaulted while her husband was tied up and beaten.

The woman later shared a video on her Instagram account, describing the horrifying ordeal: “I thought they were going to kill me. Thank God I am still alive.”

Police said late on Tuesday they had arrested a total of eight men – aged between 18 and 25 – allegedly involved in the crime, with Dumka police chief Pitamber Singh Kherwar adding that authorities had “ample evidence” and would file charges.

As news of the incident spread, Indian and foreign women shared their own experiences of rape and harassment in the country, while denouncing the culture that they say continues to allow such crimes.

Many say sexual violence remains rampant in India despite previous legal reforms, and the frequency of such crimes, coupled with the lack of effective implementation of laws and societal change, underscore a systemic failure to protect women.

“I have been sexually harassed several times in India, like every woman I know who has spent time there. It tends to get press attention when the target is a foreigner. But Indian women face this issue more than anyone else,” said Audrey Truschke, a South Asian historian and associate professor at Rutgers University.

Shonali Verma, a consultant at a private company in New Delhi, told This Week in Asia the fear of harassment or assault “is ever-present … even in the company of familiar men”, adding that “sexual abuse from individuals in our own circles” was not uncommon.

The response of India's women’s commissioner probably could've been better.

Haiti gang boss tells absent prime minister to quit or face civil war

The crime lord behind a six-day gang mutiny against Haiti’s prime minister, Ariel Henry, has claimed the Caribbean country could be plunged into civil war unless its temporarily exiled leader steps down.

Wearing an olive green tactical vest and flanked by armed foot soldiers in balaclavas, the gang boss Jimmy Chérizier told reporters his country was staring into the abyss. “Either Haiti becomes a paradise or a hell for all of us,” declared Chérizier, a police officer turned gang leader whose nom de guerre is Barbecue.

“If Ariel Henry doesn’t resign, if the international community continues to support him, we’ll be heading straight for a civil war that will lead to genocide,” added Chérizier.

Over the last six days gang fighters have released thousands of inmates from prisons stormed and laid siege to strategic locations in the capital, Port-au-Prince, including two airports, police stations and a port. Nearly all flights in and out of the country’s main international airport have been cancelled, with gangs launching a renewed assault on the compound on Tuesday.

“Who is in control? I think nobody is in control,” said Jean-Marc Biquet, the head of the Médecins Sans Frontières mission in Haiti. “And my personal fear is that the policemen are going to [give up fighting and say]: ‘It’s a lost battle.’ “Then what can happen? Well I guess, total chaos.”

US officials say there would no pressure on Henry to leave, but Washington is asking him to quickly come up with some form of plan for transition to a democratic government, adding to pressure coming from the Caribbean regional organisation, Caricom.

Chérizier’s courting of the cameras stands in stark contrast to the almost total silence from Henry and members of his debilitated administration.

“It is horrifying. It is heartbreaking what is going on. And what is worse is that you don’t hear a word from the government,” said Monique Clesca, a Port-au-Prince-based writer and political activist, blaming the unrest on the inaction and incompetence of Henry’s administration.

Haiti’s prime minister, a septuagenarian neurosurgeon who became acting president after the 2021 assassination of President Jovenel Moïse, has hardly been seen since the gang rebellion began while he was in Kenya attempting to speed up the deployment of a multinational security force.

US officials say that Henry’s visit helped resolve the constitutional issues that were blocking the Kenyan deployment, and that the police officers were on standby to fly in at short notice. It is unclear whether they would be flown to Haiti by US military transport, and also far from clear when the airport would be declare sufficiently secure for them to land.

On Tuesday, after days of speculation about his whereabouts, Henry reportedly attempted to return to Haiti, flying from the United States to the international airport in Port-au-Prince. However, according to a report in Puerto Rico’s largest newspaper, El Nuevo Día, Henry’s private jet was not given clearance to land. The plane was also prevented from landing in neighbouring Dominican Republic, which shares the Caribbean island of Hispaniola with Haiti. Instead, Henry was forced to retreat to Puerto Rico’s capital, San Juan. It is unclear what he plans to do next.

“We will let the Prime Minister speak to his travel plans,” a US state department spokesperson told El Nuevo Día when asked about Henry’s intentions. “The United States is not providing military assistance to help the Prime Minister return to Haiti,” they added.

On Wednesday, the UN security council will hold a private emergency meeting about Haiti’s intensifying security crisis which is aggravating an already dire humanitarian emergency that has exposed almost half of its 11.7 million citizens to acute hunger, according to the World Food Programme.

Asked about Chérizier’s call for Henry to step down, the state department spokesperson, Matthew Miller, told reporters: “[We] urge all actors to put the people of Haiti first, stop the violence – that would of course include these gangs that are responsible for the recent violence – and make the necessary concessions to allow for inclusive governance, free and fair elections, and the restoration of democracy.”

I know how it happens, but this stuff will never stop doing my head in.

K-pop star Karina apologises after relationship goes public

A K-pop star has issued a grovelling apology after incensed fans accused her of "betrayal" - because she has a boyfriend.

The fans reportedly drove a truck to pop star Karina's agency after finding out she was dating actor Lee Jae-wook.

"Is the love given to you by your fans not enough?" an electronic billboard on the vehicle demanded.

In a letter shared on Instagram, the aespa frontwoman vowed "to heal the wounds" she had inflicted.

"I apologise for surprising you greatly," the 23-year-old wrote, promising to show a "more mature and hardworking side" in future. The singer, real name Yu Ji-min, has led the four-woman aespa since their debut in 2020, with the single Black Mamba. Last year, their record-breaking album My World sold 2.1m copies in South Korea.

This is not an isolated incident, however. Pop stars in South Korea and Japan work in a notoriously pressurising industries, where such personal revelations can be tricky to navigate.

Just a decade ago, it was common practice for K-pop agencies to ban new stars from dating or even having a personal mobile phone, and even now admissions of romantic relationships were often considered scandalous to fans.

(There's also the fact that here, in the U.S., who is dating who is endless fodder for TMZ/social media/parasocial relationships/etc.)

Haiti spirals to collapse as gangs tighten grip

Haiti is fast descending into anarchy.

Over the weekend, the violence in the capital Port-au-Prince ramped up once again. Heavily armed gangs attacked the National Palace and set part of the Interior Ministry on fire with petrol bombs.

It comes after a sustained attack on the international airport, which remains closed to all flights - including one carrying Prime Minister Ariel Henry.

He tried to fly back to Haiti from the United States last week, but his plane was refused permission to land. He was then turned away from the neighbouring Dominican Republic too.

Mr Henry is now stuck in Puerto Rico, unable to set foot in the nation he ostensibly leads.

Among those who did manage to get into the stricken Caribbean nation, though, was a group of US military personnel.

Following a request from the US State Department, the Pentagon confirmed it had carried out an operation to, as it put it, "augment the security" of the US embassy in Port-au-Prince and airlift all non-essential staff to safety.

Soon after, the EU said it had evacuated all of its diplomats, fleeing a nation mired in violence and facing its biggest humanitarian crisis since the 2010 earthquake.

Millions of Haitians, however, simply don't have that luxury. They're trapped, no matter how bad things get.

The situation is dire at the State University of Haiti Hospital, known as the general hospital, in downtown Port-au-Prince. There is no sign of any medical staff at all.

A dead body, covered by a sheet and swarming with flies, lies in a bed next to patients waiting in vain for treatment.

Despite the overpowering stench, no-one has come to remove the body. It is rapidly decomposing in the Caribbean heat.

"There are no doctors, they all fled last week," said Philippe a patient who didn't want to give his real name.

"We can't go outside. We hear the explosions and gunfire. So, we must have courage and stay here, we can't go anywhere."

With no prime minister and a government in disarray, the gangs' power over the capital is near absolute.

They control more than 80% of Port-au-Prince and the country's most notorious gang leader, Jimmy "Barbecue" Chérizier has again told the prime minister to resign.

"If Ariel Henry doesn't step down and the international community continues to support him," he said last week, "they will lead us directly to a civil war which will end in genocide."

Meanwhile, the police, outnumbered and demoralised, are struggling to keep looters at bay. The Salomon police station in Port-au-Prince was attacked and burnt out, and charred police vehicles lie outside the still-smouldering building.

Nevertheless, even in the face of the total collapse of law and order, people must still venture out to make a living.

At a nearby market, several street hawkers told the BBC they had no other option but to leave their homes, even with gunmen roaming the streets.

"I have three kids, and I'm all they have - I'm their mother and their father," said Jocelyn, a market trader who also didn't want to give her real name.

"So, I'm obliged to take to the streets. Yesterday gunmen came here and stole all our money. A lot of vendors lost all their money. But there's no way to stay at home when you have three mouths to feed."

"The anxiety is killing me when I'm in the street," echoed an older woman selling fruit. "I keep thinking what if I get shot dead? Who will take care of my children then? I have no family to support me."

To the west, in one of Haiti's nearest neighbours, Jamaica, the dignitaries, diplomats and heads of state of the Caricom regional group are gathering for an emergency summit.

The instability in Haiti is a problem for the entire Caribbean community, and for Washington too. The idea of a nation of some 11 million people being run by gangs is of huge concern, particularly the potential impact on outward migration during an election year in the US.

It's clear Caricom favours seeing Mr Henry resign as soon as possible, from outside of the country if necessary.

The Biden administration in the US has publicly said the unelected prime minister - who had promised to hold an election in February - should return to Haiti, but only in order to stand down and begin a transition to a new government.

Privately, though, US diplomats are increasingly aware that it might now be impossible for him to return, and that even attempting to do so could further destabilise Haiti.

A UN-backed plan for a Kenyan-led rapid reaction force to tackle the gangs is still far from becoming a reality.

To add to the lawlessness, a week ago, around 4,000 inmates escaped after the gangs attacked the main prison in Port-au-Prince.

Those prisoners are now back on the streets and bolstering the ranks of their gangs.

In the aftermath, the cell doors are now wide open, the facility is virtually abandoned and there are blood stains on the ground after gunmen overpowered the guards.

A prime minister unable to return, violent gangs in control of the capital and dead bodies piling up on the streets: Haiti is currently a nation about as close to a failed state as it's possible to be.

China Nobel prize winner tarred as one of ‘three new evils’ amid rise in nationalist fervour

At first glance, a Nobel prize winning author, a bottle of green tea and Beijing’s Tsinghua University have little in common. But in recent weeks they have been dubbed by China’s nationalist netizens as the “three new evils” in the fight to defend the country’s valour in cyberspace.

Last month a patriotic blogger called Wu Wanzheng filed a lawsuit against China’s only Nobel prize-winning author, Mo Yan, accusing him of smearing the Communist army and glorifying Japanese soldiers in his fictional works set during the Japanese invasion of China.

Wu, who posts online under the pseudonym “Truth-Telling Mao Xinghuo”, is seeking 1.5bn yuan ($208m/£164m) in damages from Mo – one yuan per Chinese citizen – as well as an apology from Mo and the removal of the offending books from circulation. His lawsuit has not yet been accepted by any court.

Mo, who was awarded the Nobel prize for literature in 2012, is best known for his novel Red Sorghum, which tells the story of three generations of a family in Shandong during the second Sino-Japanese war, known in China as the Chinese war of resistance against Japanese aggression.

Although there are elements in Mo’s books that would probably not be published in today’s more restrictive cultural environment, say experts, he is by no means a dissident. He is widely celebrated in China and is a vice-chair of the party-backed China Writers Association.

Although Mo hasn’t responded to Wu’s attacks directly, this week – in response to the “recent storm” – Chinese media outlets shared a video of him reciting a poem by the Song dynasty poet Su Shi about the struggles and joys of being a scholar despite setbacks.

In attacking such a venerated figure, Wu “wants to sound more Catholic than the pope”, says Dali Yang, a professor of political science at the University of Chicago. And while some people have accused Wu of trying to boost his own social media clout, the fact that such a campaign is tolerated by China’s censors reflects the rising levels of online nationalism, which in recent years have reached dizzying heights of fervour.

Elsewhere on Weibo, netizens have been posting videos of themselves pouring away water from bottles of Nongfu Spring, China’s biggest bottled water company. The company’s crime? Using a design on its green tea drink that allegedly looks like a Japanese wooden pagoda. Another offending beverage, a brown rice tea, features on its packaging fish that allegedly look like Japanese koinobori, flags in the shape of carps.

The furore over Nongfu – whose founder, Zhong Shanshan, is China’s richest man – was sparked by the death last month of one of Zhong’s business rivals, Zong Qinghou, who was revered by nationalists. It soon spiralled into an all-out attack on Nongfu, with netizens criticising the drinks’ packaging as well as the fact that the company has US investors and that Zhong’s son is a US citizen.

“I’m patriotic, but you sell this Japanese stuff, I despise you,” said one Nongfu-hater outside a convenience store, in a video posted on Weibo. Some shops have reportedly stopped stocking Nongfu products and the company’s share price dropped by nearly 6% in the first week of March, although it has recovered slightly since.

They all realized that it's not as fun as in the Like A Dragon video games?

Rat Boy wrote:

They all realized that it's not as fun as in the Like A Dragon video games?

Oddly enough there's been a few times actual yakuza review the games. I think it's happened more then once now but I vaguely remember some of their thoughts on the first one. Thought it was actually bit too much violent and too much gun. Cause that would attract way too much unpleasant attention. That and the layout of the city was great.

'Only God can change this place': Haitians see no end to spiralling violence

"Port-au-Prince is in panic mode," a friend in the Haitian capital texted me.

Residents of Petionville, a wealthier area of of the city, are shaken after their most violent day so far in the country's spiralling security crisis.

More than a dozen bullet-ridden bodies lay in the street - the victims of the latest gang rampage.

As well as the early morning killing spree, the home of a judge was also attacked - a clear message to the country's elites vying for power.

All this in what is supposedly the safe part of town.

Unicef's executive director, Catherine Russell, has called the situation in Haiti "horrific" and likened the lawlessness to the post-apocalyptic film, Mad Max.

Certainly the latest violence in Port-au-Prince is a reminder, if any were needed, that Haiti remains closer to anarchy than stability.

Is there a reason why the american (and British) press has settled on "gangs" and "vigilantes" to describe groups of Haitians, and not "rebels" or "revolutionaries" or "insurrectionists" or "militias" or "terrorists" or other words typically reserved for conflicts of this scale?

I did some light poking around and the best I could find was a wellllll, technically level justification regarding the decentralized and disorganized nature of the Haitian groups that seemed pretty racist.

Seth wrote:

Is there a reason why the american (and British) press has settled on "gangs" and "vigilantes" to describe groups of Haitians, and not "rebels" or "revolutionaries" or "insurrectionists" or "militias" or "terrorists" or other words typically reserved for conflicts of this scale?

I did some light poking around and the best I could find was a wellllll, technically level justification regarding the decentralized and disorganized nature of the Haitian groups that seemed pretty racist.

Racism?

My understanding (I haven't dug super deep myself) is that there are many different groups of them and they are fighting each other just as much as they are the former government, and before the collapse many of them were literal criminal gangs, so the term carried over. A lot of what i can find has the Hatians themselves referring to them as "gangs" as well, so its not exactly the media making a racist judgment call.

Yeah, I've seen a whole lot of people /online trying to fit this into their post-October 7 "eyes on X" anti-Colonialist viewpoint right now and this is juuuust a bit more complicated than that.

Haiti central bank raid leaves at least three dead

Police in Haiti have killed at least three people while repelling an attack on the country's central bank.

A "group of criminals" targeted the Bank of the Republic of Haiti (BRH) on Monday, an employee told AFP, leaving up to four dead and a guard injured.

The bank itself thanked security forces for "protecting our community".

Haiti has been rocked by weeks of violence after gangs raided prisons, released thousands of inmates and forced the prime minister to resign.

In a statement on X, BRH said: "Following an incident yesterday near [our] site on Rue Pavee, security forces and the bank's security team acted with professionalism and efficiency."

The bank is one of a few key institutions still running in Haiti's capital Port-au-Prince, where hundreds of hospitals have closed.

This is old but my wife just told me about it and how many people are sucked into this.

Hundreds of thousands forced to scam in SE Asia: UN

I believe that phenomenon gets checked in Last Week Tonight's piece on Pig Butchering scams!

Prederick wrote:

I believe that phenomenon gets checked in Last Week Tonight's piece on Pig Butchering scams!

And the Search Engine podcast did an episode on it a couple weeks ago that I just finished listening to, and the second half is bonkers.