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Governor of California Gavin Newsom speaks next to U.S. President Donald Trump upon Trump's arrival to tour areas impacted or destroyed by the southern California wildfires, at Los Angeles International Airport in Los Angeles, California, on Jan. 24, 2025.
Hard Numbers: California calls for help, Kenyan killed in Haiti, Trump tariffs to hit Canada soon, Apple to invest big, DRC casualties, An exit from Brexit
40 billion: California Gov. Gavin Newsom has asked Congress to approve nearly$40 billion in aid to help the Los Angeles area recover from January’s wildfires. Total economic losses from the firestorm have been estimated above $250 billion.
1: A Kenyan police officer was killed on Sunday in Haiti, north of Port-au-Prince. This is thefirst casualty since the Kenyan-led security mission arrived on a mission to stabilize Haiti in June 2024.
25: Been wondering what happened to Donald Trump’s threat to impose huge tariffs on Canada? Well, the US president said Monday the plan for 25% tariffs on most Canadian goods is still very much alive and will start next week. Trump said work on their implementation was “moving along very rapidly.”
500 billion: Apple said Monday it willinvest $500 billion to expand its US facilities over the next four years, a move the company says will create 20,000 jobs. Earlier this month, President Donald Trump announced tariffs of 10% on all imports from China, from which Apple imports many products. Trump attributed the investment to his tariffs.
7,000: Judith Suminwa, prime minister of the Democratic Republic of Congo, told a meeting of the Human Rights Council in Geneva on Monday that about7,000 people have died since January in fighting in the eastern part of the country. That figure includes both combatants and civilians.
15: Applications by Britons for Irish citizenship hit a post-Brexit high last year as a growing number of workers and pensioners tried to gain “backdoor” access into the EU. British applications to the Foreign Births Register, a citizenship route for people with Irish grandparents or parents,jumped 15% in 2024 to 23,456.
A housing activist holds a sign outside a building whose residents fear they will be evicted after its purchase by a real estate investment fund, in the neighborhood of Lavapies, in Madrid, Spain, on Dec. 14, 2024. The sign reads, "My motherland is my neighborhood."
HARD NUMBERS: Spain jacks taxes for foreigners, North Korea blasts off again, Haitian displacements soar, Red Note noted by TikTok users
2: The new year is off to an explosive start in North Korea, where the regime has already conducted its second large-scale missile test of 2025, firing a barrage of short-range ballistic weapons into the sea between the Korean Peninsula and Japan. Last week, Pyongyang let fly a hypersonic medium-range missile, after spending much of 2024 testing missiles of all kinds. Over the past year, Supreme Leader Kim Jong-un has severely hardened his policy toward the US, South Korea, and Japan, which he accused of forming a bloc of “aggression.”
1, 041,000 million: The number of Haitians displaced by gang violence has tripled over the past year, reaching at least 1,041,000 people, according to a new UN assessment. The forced return of about 200,000 Haitians from the neighboring Dominican Republic had made the problem even worse. Last week, Guatemala was the latest country to join a Kenyan-led international mission in Haiti that is struggling to quash the powerful gangs that control much of the capital, Port-au-Prince.
300 million: With just days before TikTok’s ban in the US is set to go into effect, thousands of the popular app’s users are reportedly flocking – in both irony and protest – to another Chinese-owned video platform called Xiaohongshu, or “little red book,” which English speakers simply call “Red Note.” The app has 300 million users already and is mostly in Chinese, meaning most of the new users have to use translation tools to navigate it.
A contingent of security forces from Guatemala holds a Guatemala flag as they arrive in Haiti for a security mission, at Toussaint Louverture International Airport in Port-Au-Prince Haiti January 4, 2025.
Guatemalan troops arrive in Haiti to combat gang violence
A total of150 Guatemalan soldiers landed in Haiti on Friday and Saturday to join a United Nations-backed mission led by Kenya aimed at curbing rampant gang violence.
The troops, drawn from Guatemala’s military police, were welcomed ata ceremony Friday at Port-au-Prince’s international airport by Haitian leaders, including Transitional Presidential Council head Leslie Voltaire and Prime Minister Alix Didier Fils-Aimé. US Ambassador Dennis Hankins also attended.
The 400 Kenyan police officers leading the mission have struggled to restore order in Haiti, where armed gangs control much of the capital. Despite international efforts, violence has escalated, with gangs storming prisons, targeting diplomatic vehicles, and conducting murderous rampages such as thevoodoo-fueled massacre of nearly 200 people in the capital last month.
In a statement, Normil Rameau, the acting director general of the National Police, said a “marriage” of the police with the people of Haiti remains “the most effective way to facilitate the total restoration of security and the establishment of lasting peace.” We’re watching whether this latest military contingent can help cement that union in the war-torn country.
FILE PHOTO: A Kenyan police officer walks in front of an armoured personnel carrier during a joint operation with Haitian police, in Port-au-Prince, Haiti July 29, 2024.
Haitian leaders condemn Macron for calling them “morons”
Haiti’s government was not amused on Friday after French President Emmanuel Macron wascaught on camera calling the island nation’s leaders “morons” for ousting their former prime minister amid escalating gang violence. Macronalso blamed Haitians for “letting drug trafficking take over,” sparking outrage in the former French colony.
The comments have led to renewed demands for reparations for payments Haiti made to France back in 1804. The bill was to account for so-called “lost property,” including slaves, after the country declared independence. Activists claim the payments amounted to over $100 billion and engendered a cycle of perpetual economic and political instability.
Violence has again reached crisis levels. Armed gangs control over 85% of the capital of Port-au-Prince and have attacked prisons, police stations, and the city’s international airport, whichwas closed for the second time this month after gangs fired at passenger planes. This cut off food aid to a populationwhere nearly 6,000 people are starving and 5.4 million are experiencing crisis levels of hunger.
Despite hopes for change, the latest UN-backed security mission led by Kenya has failed to stem the violence. At least 108 suspected gang members were killed over a three-day peroiod last week, and Doctors without Borders has suspended operations in the country. The US pushed for a full UN peacekeeping mission at the Security Council last week, but Russia and China opposed the mission.A man rushes past members of security forces during clashes between gangs and security forces, in Port-au-Prince, Haiti November 11, 2024.
UN will resume aid flights to Haiti as gangs gain ground
The UN Humanitarian Air Service is scheduled to restart flights to Haiti on Wednesday, a week after several planes attempting to land at Port-au-Prince airport came under small arms fire. The attacks wounded a flight attendant and resulted in the US Federal Aviation Administration banning all commercial flights to the island nation for a month.
Despite the arrival this summer of a Kenyan-led international force to help Haitian National Police push back against growing gang violence, the gangs have continued to sow chaos. The UN estimates that 20,000 people fled Port-au-Prince over the course of four days of fighting last week, and on Monday, an attack on the affluent suburb of Petion-Ville — as safe a place as you’ll find in the capital — resulted in at least 28 deaths. Women and girls are being victimized through the systemic use of sexual violence by the gangs, and medical providers have reported a “worrying increase” of such attacks this year, with some areas seeing 40 rape victims seeking treatment daily, just a fraction of the total.
Police are far from blameless: Doctors Without Borders says cops attacked one of their ambulances on Nov. 11, tear gassed the paramedics, held them captive, and summarily executed at least two patients, who the police said were gang members. There is chaos in the corridors of power, as GZERO reported last week, with erstwhile Prime Minister Garry Conille forced out of office and accusations of corruption flying in the transitional presidential council.
Is there hope? Not much. The resumption of aid flights may help some Haitians avoid acute hunger but will do little to end the violence. We’re watching for another 600 Kenyan troops to be deployed this month as promised, and to see whether other countries that have pledged forces follow through. We’re also following US efforts to transform the Kenyan-led mission into a proper UN peacekeeping operation before the Trump administration takes power in late January.
A woman and three children flee their home from gang violence, in Port-au-Prince, Haiti October 20, 2024.
Haitian gangs assault government-held areas of the capital
Residents in Port-au-Prince’s government-controlled neighborhood of Solino have been sheltering from gang assaults that began late Thursday and intensified over the weekend. Haitian police backed by a small Kenyan-led mission are fighting to retain control of their key areas, roughly 20% of the city.
Terrified residents called local radio stations desperate for help, and the gang coalition known as Viv Ansanm posted videos of fighters hoisting weapons and saying those who oppose them will be “burned to ashes.” President Gary Conilleredeployed police and soldiers from elite units to fight instead of protecting VIPs. The attacks forced an inauguration ceremony for Haiti’s provisional electoral council to be moved to safer premises and coincided with the arrival of a mission from the Bahamas, which will deploy 150 troops to the Kenyan mission in the coming months.
Haiti’s Transitional Presidential Council head Edgard Leblanc Fils addresses the 79th United Nations General Assembly at United Nations headquarters in New York, U.S., September 26, 2024.
Haiti’s transitional council rocked by corruption scandal
On Wednesday, three members of Haiti’s interim governing council and two other high-profile Haitians were charged with bribery by an anti-corruption agency.
The three officials are accused of demanding more than $750,000 from the director of the government-owned National Bank of Credit to secure his job, charges that threaten to undermine the legitimacy of the council, which was appointed earlier this year after gang violence forced the country’s former Prime Minister Ariel Henry to resign. The bank director did not have the funds and instead gave credit cards with a $20,000 limit to the three council members. The council has yet to say whether it will take action against the three.
Why does it matter? The report will likely erode Haitians’ trust in the nine-member council, which is charged with running the country alongside its new prime minister, Garry Conille. This comes at a time when Haiti is suffering from mass starvation and horrifying gang violence, and as the UN-backed mission in Haiti struggles to regain control of the country.
News of the allegations came on the same day the Dominican Republic announced it would begin massive deportations of Haitians living illegally in the country, expelling up to 10,000 a week.
The corruption scandal threatens to shake public trust and destabilize the delicate political balance achieved through the formation of the transitional council. And, as Haitians flood back into the country from the Dominican Republic, the coming weeks will be crucial in determining whether Haiti can overcome this latest setback and continue its progress toward restoring security and democratic governance.
Japan's Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba arrives for a group photograph with his new cabinet members at the prime minister's official residence in Tokyo, Japan, October 1, 2024.
Hard Numbers: Ishiba forms his Cabinet, Haiti plagued by hunger, Tunisia jails opposition candidate, Eurozone inflation drops, Cambodian journalist arrested
2: He may think women should inherit the imperial thrones, but that doesn’t mean Japan’s Prime Minister-elect Shigeru Ishiba is an equal opportunity employer. Of his 19 newly appointed Cabinet ministers, only two are women, whom he’s appointed as children’s policy minister and education minister. His appointments also included two former defense ministers Ishiba has worked with in the past – one as foreign minister, another as his defense chief – signaling the new PM’s focus on security issues.
5.4 million: Hunger amid horrifying gang violence in Haiti has led nearly 6,000 people to the brink of starvation, according to a new report by the Integrated Food Security Phase Classification. Nearly half the 11-million-strong country – a whopping 5.4 million Haitians – are facing crisis levels of hunger and famine. The Kenyan-led intervention force has had its UN mandate extended by a year, but an effort to turn it into a formal UN peacekeeping mission was stymied by China and Russia.
12: Running for office in Tunisia can win you … years behind bars, apparently. Ayachi Zammel, a candidate in the country’s Oct. 6 presidential election, is facing 12 years in jail for cases related to voter endorsements, his lawyer said. Zammel, who remains on the ballot, was one of just two candidates approved by Tunisia's electoral authority ISIE to challenge President Kais Saied.
1.8: European homebuyers may have cause to celebrate: Inflation in the Eurozone last month dropped to 1.8%, coming in below the European Central Bank’s 2% target for the first time in three years. As a result, the ECB is expected to drop the rate by a quarter point when it meets on Oct. 17.
2: Award-winning journalist Mech Dara has been arrested and charged for social media posts that could “incite social unrest,” a Cambodian court said. Dara, who has reported on corruption and human trafficking, faces a two-year sentence if convicted, and human rights groups are calling for his release.