Port-au-Prince, Haiti – Gangs in Haiti besieged multiple districts in Port-au-Prince, burning homes and exchanging Gunfire with police for hours as hundreds escaped the mayhem early Thursday, in one of the most serious attacks since Haiti’s new prime minister was appointed.

The attacks began late Wednesday in communities such as Solino and Delmas 18, 20, and 24, southwest of the main international airport, which has been shuttered for over two months due to ongoing gang violence.

“The gangs started burning everything in sight,” said a man named Néne, who refused to disclose his last name due to fear. “I was hiding in a corner all night.”

Gangs In Haiti Launch Fresh Attacks, Days After A New Prime Minister Is Announced

He walked with a companion, carrying a dusty red bag crammed with clothes—the only thing they could preserve. The garments belonged to Néne’s children, whom he had whisked out of Delmas 18 in the morning during a lull in the battle.

The neighborhoods formerly bustling with cars and pedestrians were like ghost towns long after morning, with only the occasional bleating from a lone goat breaking the calm.

An armored police truck patrolled the streets, passing burnt vehicles and cinderblock walls with the scrawled “Viv Babecue,” a reference to one of Haiti’s most powerful gang bosses.

People who escaped the onslaught in Delmas 18 and other adjacent communities held fans, stoves, mattresses, and plastic bags packed with clothes as they left on foot, on motorcycles, or in colorful mini buses known as tap-taps. Others were walking empty-handed after losing everything.

“There were gunshots left and right,” claimed Paul Pierre, 47, who was walking with his girlfriend looking for safety after their house burned down. They couldn’t salvage any of their possessions.

He stated that the nocturnal battle ripped children from their parents and husbands from their wives as people fled in terror, adding, “Everyone is just trying to save themselves.”

Martina, a woman who refused to provide her last name out of fear, claimed she was left homeless after armed assailants burnt her home. She fled with her 4-year-old, who she claims attempted to flee when the shooting started late Wednesday.

“I told him, ‘Don’t be afraid. “This is life in Haiti,” she remarked as she held a hefty load of goods on her head, including butter, which she wanted to sell to generate money and find a new home.

Gangs In Haiti Launch Fresh Attacks, Days After A New Prime Minister Is Announced

When asked to describe what transpired overnight, she answered, “Gunfire, Gunfire, everywhere! Nobody slept. “Everybody was running.”

Jimmy Chérizier, the head of the formidable gang federation G9 Family and Allies and a former elite police officer known as Barbecue, was in charge of the area where the incident occurred.

He and other gang bosses have been blamed for the coordinated attacks that began on February 29 in the capital, Port-au-Prince. Gunmen have torched police stations, opened fire on the main international airport, and stormed Haiti’s two largest prisons, freeing over 4,000 inmates.

The attacks eventually forced Prime Minister Ariel Henry to resign, prompting the formation of a transitional presidential council. The council’s majority unexpectedly announced a new prime minister on Tuesday: Fritz Bélizaire, a former sports minister. The action threatens to split the nine-member council, which was sworn in last week.

As new authorities take over the country amid fighting, Haitians demand that they prioritize their protection, as gangs remain more strong and well-armed than the Haitian National Police.

More than 2,500 people were murdered or injured between January and March of this year, a more than 50% rise over the same period last year, according to the United Nations.

Meanwhile, over 90,000 individuals have fled Port-au-Prince in just one month, as gangs controlling an estimated 80% of the capital increasingly target formerly tranquil districts.

Ernest Aubrey told how he relocated to Delmas 18 years ago. He’s leaving home for the first time.

Gangs In Haiti Launch Fresh Attacks, Days After A New Prime Minister Is Announced

“It is too much. “We can’t resist any longer,” he said of the gangs. “They are taking everything we own.”

As he went with his heavy backpack, he noticed an acquaintance leaving in a car and dashed toward them to see if he could catch a ride.

Vanessa Vieux was one of the few who stayed at Delmas 18. Early Wednesday after the incident, she relocated her elderly mother to the countryside. She thought it was best not to give her home over to gangs. Furthermore, she has faith in Haiti’s National Police.

“I live next to a police officer,” she explained. “That’s why I’m not scared.”

SOURCE – (AP)

United Nations  — A week after vetoing a U.S.-Japan resolution to halt an arms race in space, Russia circulated a UN resolution urging all countries to take immediate steps to prevent weapons from being placed in outer space “forever.”

The Russian draft resolution, goes beyond the U.S.-Japan plan by calling not only for steps to prevent weapons from being deployed in outer space but also for preventing “the threat or use of force in outer space,” “for all time.”

Russia Proposes UN Resolution On Banning Weapons In Space, After Vetoing Similar UN-Japan Draft

It states that this should include deploying weapons “from space against Earth, and from Earth against objects in outer space.”

When Russia’s UN Ambassador Vassily Nebenzia rejected the United States-Japan draft, he warned the Security Council that it did not go far enough in outlawing all sorts of weapons in space.

The vetoed resolution only addressed weapons of mass destruction, including nuclear weapons, and made no mention of other weapons in space.

It would have urged all countries to refrain from developing or deploying nuclear weapons or other weapons of mass destruction in space, as prohibited by a 1967 international convention adopted by the United States and Russia, and to recognize the importance of verifying compliance.

Before the US-Japan resolution was voted on April 24, Russia and China presented an amendment calling on all countries, particularly those with space capabilities, “to prevent for all time the placement of weapons in outer space, and the threat of use of force in outer spaces.”

Seven countries voted in favor, seven against, and one abstention, and the amendment failed to receive the requisite nine “yes” votes in the 15-member Security Council.

Following the decision, US Ambassador Linda Thomas-Greenfield informed the council that Russian President Vladimir Putin has stated that Moscow has no intention of placing nuclear weapons in space.

“Today’s veto raises the question: why? Why, if you are obeying the rules, would you oppose a resolution that reinforces them? “What could you possibly be hiding?” she inquired. “It’s confusing. And it is a disgrace.”

Russia Proposes UN Resolution On Banning Weapons In Space, After Vetoing Similar UN-Japan Draft

Putin was responding to the White House’s revelation in February that Russia had acquired a “troubling” anti-satellite weapon capability, but such a weapon is not yet operational.

Vassily Nebenzia, Russia’s UN Ambassador, said after casting the veto that the US-Japan resolution cherry-picked weapons of mass devastation.

He emphasized that the US and its partners had already revealed plans to deploy weapons in outer space, which explains their activities.

Nebenzia also claimed that the United States has been opposing a Russian-Chinese proposal for a convention prohibiting the deployment of weapons in outer space since 2008.

Thomas-Greenfield accused Russia of undermining global treaties to prevent the spread of nuclear weapons, recklessly invoking “dangerous nuclear rhetoric,” abandoning several arms control obligations, and refusing to engage “in substantive discussions around arms control or risk reduction.”

Russia Proposes UN Resolution On Banning Weapons In Space, After Vetoing Similar UN-Japan Draft

Much of the Russian draft resolution is identical to the US-Japan text, including the wording aimed at averting an arms race in space.

It urges all countries, particularly those with significant space capabilities, “to actively contribute to the goal of the peaceful use of outer space and the prevention of an arms race in outer space.”

According to Thomas-Greenfield, the world is only beginning to realize “the catastrophic ramifications of a nuclear explosion in space.”

SOURCE – (AP)

ROME — During the celebrations on Sunday to commemorate the 79th anniversary of the execution of Italian dictator Benito Mussolini, numerous individuals performed the fascist salute and vocalized a fascist chant.

Clad in black attire, the adherents of neo-fascism paraded around places in northern Italy where Mussolini was apprehended and put to death after World War II. They also marched at Predappio, the birthplace and burial site of Mussolini.

Dozens In Italy Give A Fascist Salute On The Anniversary Of Mussolini’s Execution

Mussolini was apprehended by anti-fascist partisans in Dongo, located on the shores of Lake Como, on April 27, 1945, while attempting to flee with his lover, Clara Petacci, after the Allied forces liberated Italy.

According to footage captured by the LaPresse news agency, a gathering of neo-fascists paraded through Dongo on Sunday, where they solemnly deposited 15 roses into the lake as a tribute to the deceased ministers and executives of the Mussolini government.

The partisans killed Mussolini and Petacci on the next day in the neighboring lakeside town of Mezzegra-Giulino. Commemorations were also conducted there on Sunday. Following a performance of Taps, the person in charge of the commemorations loudly exclaimed, “Comrade Benito Mussolini,” prompting the crowd to respond with a rigid-armed fascist salute and a chant of “present.”

A contingent of police trucks formed a barrier between the protestors in Dongo and the large crowd of protesters singing the renowned partisan anthem “Bella Ciao” during the ceremony.

Dozens In Italy Give A Fascist Salute On The Anniversary Of Mussolini’s Execution

Premier Giorgia Meloni coincidentally led her far-right Brothers of Italy party in an election rally in the city of Pescara on the anniversary of Mussolini’s execution. A high-ranking official in Mussolini’s final cabinet founded the Italian Social Movement in 1946, which is where Brothers of Italy gets its name. Following Mussolini’s downfall, the party attracted individuals who sympathized with fascism and former government officials.

Meloni, who became a member of the MSI’s youth branch during her teenage years, has made efforts to separate her party from its neo-fascist origins. She has criticized fascism’s suppression of democracy and emphasized that the Italian right-wing movement relinquished fascism to history several decades ago. On Sunday, Meloni asserted that the left poses a greater threat of totalitarianism to Italy.

She saw that Communist Party members had lodged a formal protest against the tents constructed on the Pescara seafront to host the Brothers of Italy demonstration.

Dozens In Italy Give A Fascist Salute On The Anniversary Of Mussolini’s Execution

During this rally, Meloni declared her intention to lead the party’s campaign for the upcoming European Parliament elections in June.

“I observe that the Communist Party continues to exist, and I mention this fact to highlight the current presence of those who long for totalitarianism in Italy,” she stated.

SOURCE – (AP)