DIRS.INFO The most relevant business & tech news

☆ How 360,000 Haitians Wound Up Living in Empty Lots and Crowded Schools
▼ + stars: | 2024-05-08 | by ( Frances Robles | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: 1 min

Many places have no running water, flushing toilets or garbage pickup. The lucky ones are sleeping on a friend’s sofa. “There are kids at my camp who have no parents,” said Agenithe Jean, 39, who left her home in the Carrefour Feuilles neighborhood of Haiti’s capital, Port-au-Prince, in August for an improvised camp in an empty lot about six miles away. “We need latrines. We need somewhere to go.”

Persons: ”, Agenithe Jean Organizations: United Nations Locations: Haiti, United, Carrefour Feuilles, Haiti’s, Port

☆ Preparations Ramp Up for Global Security Force to Quell Haitian Violence
▼ + stars: | 2024-05-07 | by ( David C. Adams | Frances Robles | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: 1 min

U.S. military planes filled with civilian contractors and supplies have begun landing in Haiti, paving the way for a seven-nation security mission, led by Kenya, to deploy to the troubled Caribbean nation in the coming weeks, American officials say. But even as the security situation worsens and millions of Haitians go hungry, a military-style deployment that is estimated to cost $600 million has just a fraction of the funding required. Biden administration officials would not say whether a precise date for the deployment date had been set. The Kenyan government did not respond to requests for comment. Several flights from Charleston Air Force Base in South Carolina have landed at Toussaint Louverture International Airport in Port-au-Prince, the capital, in the past week, according to the U.S. Southern Command.

Persons: Toussaint Organizations: Biden, Kenyan, Charleston Air Force Base, U.S . Southern Command Locations: Haiti, Kenya, South Carolina, Port

☆ Haiti’s Hospitals Survived Cholera and Covid. Gangs Are Closing Them.
▼ + stars: | 2024-03-17 | by ( David C. Adams | Frances Robles | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

It left a small hole in her cheek, just missing her jawbone and teeth. Unlike many Haitians wounded by gunfire in the middle of a vicious gang takeover of the capital, Port-au-Prince, Ms. Cenatus was actually lucky that day — she made it to a clinic. But she is still in pain, her wound swelling, and she cannot get any relief, with more and more hospitals and clinics abandoned by staff or looted by gangs. “My teeth hurt,” she said. “I can feel something is wrong.”A gang assault on Haiti’s capital has left an already weak health care system in tatters.

Persons: Taïna, Cenatus, ”, “ Locations: Haiti, Port, tatters

Even as gangs terrorized Haiti, kidnapped civilians en masse and killed at will, the country’s embattled prime minister held on to power for years. In the midst of political upheaval not seen since the country’s president was assassinated in 2021, Haiti’s prime minister, Ariel Henry, agreed to step down. What made this moment different, experts say: The gangs united, forcing the country’s leader to relinquish power. “Prime Minister Ariel resigned not because of politics, not because of the massive street demonstrations against him over the years, but because of the violence gangs have carried out,” said Judes Jonathas, a Haitian consultant who has worked for years in aid delivery. “The situation totally changed now, because the gangs are now working together.”

Persons: Ariel Henry, Ariel, ”, Judes Jonathas Organizations: “ Locations: Haiti, Haitian

He learned from neighbors and others who dared venture into gang territory that Jude-Anne Hospital had been looted and cleared of anything of value. It was the second hospital he has had to close. “They took everything — the operating rooms, the X-rays, everything from the labs and the pharmacies,” Dr. LaRoche said. As politicians around the region scramble to hash out a diplomatic solution to a political crisis that has the prime minister, Ariel Henry, stranded in Puerto Rico and gangs attacking police stations, a humanitarian disaster is quickly escalating. The food supply is threatened, and access to water and health care have been severely curtailed.

Persons: Ronald V, LaRoche, Jude, Anne, “, Ariel Henry Organizations: Anne Hospital Locations: Haiti’s Delmas, Haiti, Puerto Rico

A Haitian prosecutor has recommended charges against 70 people for the 2021 assassination of President Jovenel Moïse. Among the former Colombian soldiers and Haitian government officials accused in the case is one unexpected name: former First Lady Martine Moïse, who was seriously injured in the attack. Instead, it says that she and other accomplices gave statements that were contradicted by other witnesses, suggesting that they were complicit in the attack and notes that one of the main suspects in custody in Haiti claimed Mrs. Moïse wanted to take over the presidency. The complaint did not provide any more details about Mrs. Moise’s statements. Her lawyer denied the accusations.

Persons: Jovenel Moïse, Martine Moïse, Moïse Organizations: Colombian, The New York Times Locations: Haiti

☆ After Help From Kenyan Police Is Blocked, Haitians Ask: What Now?
▼ + stars: | 2024-01-28 | by ( Frances Robles | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

Gangs have taken over entire neighborhoods in Haiti’s capital, and killings have more than doubled in the past year, but for the organizers of the Port-au-Prince Jazz Festival, the show simply had to go on. So while judges an ocean away deliberated whether to send a contingent of officers to pacify Haiti’s violence-riddled streets, festival organizers made do by shortening the length of the event to four days from eight, moving the acts from a public stage to a restricted hotel venue and replacing the handful of artists who canceled. As 11.5 million Haitians struggle to feed their families and ride the bus or go to work because they fear becoming the victims of gunmen or kidnappers, they also are pushing forward, struggling to reclaim a safe sense of routine — whether or not that comes with the assistance of international soldiers. “We need something normal,” said Miléna Sandler, the executive director of the Haiti Jazz Foundation, whose festival is taking place this weekend in Port-au-Prince, the capital. “We need elections.”

Persons: ”, Miléna Sandler Organizations: Prince Jazz Festival, Haiti Jazz Foundation Locations: Haiti’s, Port

A Kenyan court on Friday prohibited the deployment of 1,000 Kenyan police officers to Haiti, jeopardizing a multinational security force charged with stabilizing the chaos-hit Caribbean island nation before it even got off the ground. The force, which is backed by the United Nations and financed by the United States, had been stalled since October, when Kenyan opponents of the mission challenged it in court, calling it unconstitutional. “An order is issued prohibiting the deployment of Kenyan police officers to Haiti or any other country,” Justice Chacha Mwita said at the conclusion of a judgment that took 40 minutes to read. The international force was meant to help break the grip of the armed gangs that control most of Haiti’s capital, Port-au-Prince, and have turned Haiti into one of the world’s most dangerous nations. Haiti’s government has pleaded for foreign military forces to be sent in to restore order, but the United States and Canada have been unwilling to commit their own troops.

Persons: Chacha Mwita Organizations: Kenyan, United Nations Locations: Haiti, jeopardizing, United States, Port, Canada

☆ An Unlikely New Threat to Haiti’s Stability: An Armed Environmental Group
▼ + stars: | 2024-01-25 | by ( Frances Robles | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

In Haiti, as the number of murders soar and kidnappings rise, even the police are fleeing. With no elected president in office and a prime minister widely seen as illegitimate, calls for the government’s ouster are now being heard from an unlikely source: a brigade of armed officers ostensibly responsible for protecting environmentally sensitive areas. Armed uniformed members of the brigade clashed with government forces in northern Haiti this week, heightening tensions in an already volatile nation where gangs have seized control over large swaths of the capital, Port-au-Prince, and are wreaking havoc in rural areas. The environmental group, the Brigade for the Security of Protected Areas (known as B-SAP), became angry after the prime minister fired its leader. On Wednesday, the group’s officers attempted to invade the local customs office, and Haitian National Police units repelled them using tear gas.

Persons: Guy Philippe Organizations: Brigade, Haitian National Police Locations: Haiti, Port, U.S

☆ DeSantis Faces Critical Decision on Cruise Ships in Key West
▼ + stars: | 2023-11-25 | by ( Frances Robles | More About Frances Robles | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

Since the early days of the coronavirus pandemic, when cruise ships filled with sickened passengers were blocked from U.S. ports, residents in Key West, Fla., have been trying to limit the size and number of vacation vessels on the tiny island, using the momentum created during the pandemic to argue for continuing restrictions on cruise vessels. Ron DeSantis, void the new restrictions the following year. Now the wealthy hotelier who operates Key West’s cruise ship port is doubling down, asking the state for permission to expand, which would allow bigger ships with more passengers to operate legally out of the port. The issue will soon land on the desk of Mr. DeSantis, who has received nearly $1 million in campaign donations from the pier’s owner. It represents a tough balancing act for the Republican governor, a 2024 presidential candidate who has touted his environmental record but has also been a booster of Florida’s tourism industry.

Persons: Ron DeSantis, DeSantis Organizations: Republican Locations: U.S, Key West, Fla, City

☆ An Ex-Detective’s Overturned Murder Cases Have Cost New York $110 Million
▼ + stars: | 2023-11-20 | by ( Frances Robles | More About Frances Robles | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

A single New York City police detective accused of trying to close murder cases by concocting false witness testimony and coercing confessions has cost taxpayers $110 million in settlements to more than a dozen people whose convictions were overturned after some had spent decades in prison. People investigated by the former detective, Louis N. Scarcella, have already received a total of $73.1 million in settlements from New York City and another $36.9 million from the state, according to the city and state comptroller offices. The $110 million went to 14 different defendants, including a woman who died a few years after her release, a man who was just 14 when he was arrested on murder charges and a man whose settlement went to his mother because he died in prison at age 37. One man, let out of prison after 23 years, had a severe heart attack just two days later. But no other New York Police Department officer has ever come close to costing taxpayers as much, lawyers involved in the cases say.

Persons: Louis N, Scarcella Organizations: York City, New York Police Department Locations: New York City, Chicago, Philadelphia

But he eluded capture, even as dozens of people in Haiti and nearly a dozen in the United States were arrested in connection with the killing. Evidence indicates that Mr. Badio was involved in nearly every aspect of the conspiracy, Mr. Johnston said. The Justice Department in Washington has accused several South Florida businessmen of orchestrating the assassination so they could install a puppet as president and secure lucrative contracts with the Haitian government. No U.S. charges have been announced against Mr. Badio, who owns a house in Rockland County, N.Y. Phone records viewed by The New York Times show calls between Mr. Badio and Ariel Henry, now Haiti’s prime minister, both before and after Mr. Moise’s killing, each of which lasted several minutes.

Persons: Badio, “, ”, Jake Johnston, Johnston, Ariel Henry, Moise’s Organizations: Mr, Justice Ministry, Center for Economic, Research, The Justice Department, The New York Times Locations: Haiti, United States, Washington, Florida, Haitian, Rockland County

☆ After Taking Away Critics’ Citizenship, a Country Takes Their Houses
▼ + stars: | 2023-09-26 | by ( Frances Robles | More About Frances Robles | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

The campaign is a throwback to the leftist party’s first time in office in the 1980s, when the Sandinistas expropriated homes, setting off yearslong legal disputes. Mr. Ortega was beaten at the ballot box in 1990 but after changes to the constitution that made it possible for him to win, Mr. Ortega reclaimed the presidency in 2007. He spent the next decade chipping away at the country’s democracy by interfering with the National Assembly, elections and the Supreme Court. Tens of thousands of people rose up against Mr. Ortega and his wife, Vice President Rosario Murillo, in 2018, accusing them of becoming exactly what they had once fought against: leaders of a dictatorial family dynasty. The move to start seizing properties in recent days follows the confiscation of a prominent Jesuit university and the arrests of several priests.

Persons: party’s, Daniel Ortega, Ortega, Rosario Murillo Organizations: Sandinista, National Assembly, Jesuit, Harvard University

Ron DeSantis of Florida suspended the top state prosecutor in Orlando on Wednesday, accusing her of incompetence and neglect of duty for what he characterized as lenience against violent criminals. Mr. DeSantis suspended Monique H. Worrell, the elected state attorney of Florida’s Ninth Judicial Circuit, which includes Orange and Osceola counties, and cited her handling of three cases. It is the second time in a year that Mr. DeSantis, a Republican running for president, has taken the drastic and exceedingly rare step of removing an elected state attorney. Critics, and even a federal judge, blasted Mr. DeSantis’s ouster of Mr. Warren as politically motivated. But Mr. Warren remains out of office — and Mr. DeSantis mentions his removal in just about every campaign stump speech.

Persons: Ron DeSantis, DeSantis, Monique H, Worrell, Andrew H, Warren, DeSantis’s Organizations: Judicial Circuit, Orlando, Republican Locations: Florida, Orlando, Orange, Osceola, Tampa

☆ For Pulse Massacre Victims, a New Push for Answers
▼ + stars: | 2023-08-06 | by ( Frances Robles | More About Frances Robles | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

On the night that the Pulse nightclub in Orlando was attacked by a gunman with a high-capacity rifle, Jorshua Hernández spent three hours bleeding in a bathroom stall, unable to find his way to an exit. Another patron, Javier Nava, saw a ladder suspended from the ceiling and thought it could help him escape to the roof. But the ladder led only to a loft-style office, where he was trapped with a bullet wound in his abdomen. “If they had more doors, one could survive and there wouldn’t be so many dead,” Mr. Hernández, 29, said. Both the club owner and city officials said that the facility had sufficient exits and complied with all required building regulations.

Persons: Jorshua Hernández, Javier Nava, César Rodríguez, Mr, Hernández, Omar Mateen Locations: Orlando

☆ An International Force May Be Headed to Troubled Haiti, Again
▼ + stars: | 2023-08-01 | by ( Frances Robles | More About Frances Robles | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

After nearly a year of calls from the prime minister of Haiti for armed intervention from abroad, the troubled country may soon get such a deployment from an African nation. Just days after announcing the withdrawal of nonemergency personnel from its embassy in Port-au-Prince, the Haitian capital, and urging other Americans to leave, the United States said on Monday that it would introduce a resolution to the United Nations Security Council authorizing a multinational force to Haiti. On Saturday, Kenya said in a statement that it would “positively consider” leading such a force by sending 1,000 police officers to the Caribbean nation, which has become a cauldron of violence and political instability. The prime minister of Haiti is largely viewed as incompetent, gangs have take over vast areas of Port-au-Prince, and the police have done little to quell the violence, leading to the rise of vigilante groups that have targeted and killed suspected gang members in public.

Organizations: United Nations Security Locations: Haiti, Port, United States, Kenya, Caribbean

☆ Turmoil in Florida’s New State Guard, as Some Recruits Quit
▼ + stars: | 2023-07-15 | by ( Frances Robles | More About Frances Robles | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

Of the 150 people accepted into the program, 120 had graduated, program officials said. “We are aware that some trainees who were removed are dissatisfied,” Maj. Gen. John D. Haas, Florida’s adjutant general, said in a statement. “This is to be expected with any course that demands rigor and discipline,” he added. The original plan to field 200 volunteers with a budget of $3.5 million, proposed in late 2021, grew to 1,500 people and $108 million. The first-year budget includes $50 million for five aircraft and $2.7 million for boats — equipment that many experts say is beyond the budget of most State Guards.

Persons: ” Maj, John D, Haas, Newhouse Organizations: Guards, Mr, The Times

☆ Seeking Latino Support, Trump Raises Specter of Latin American Corruption
▼ + stars: | 2023-06-14 | by ( Neil Vigdor | Frances Robles | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: 1 min

The day before former President Donald J. Trump was arraigned on federal charges, he gave an interview to Americano Media, a conservative Spanish-language broadcaster in South Florida, and described his indictment as a “regression” of democracy. Minutes before he pleaded not guilty in a Miami courtroom on Tuesday, his spokeswoman told reporters that the episode was something “you see in dictatorships like Cuba and Venezuela.”After he left the courthouse, Mr. Trump went directly to a popular Cuban restaurant in Little Havana and prayed with supporters. As he mounts his political defense against a 37-count indictment, Mr. Trump has repeatedly invoked corruption and dysfunction in Latin American governments, casting himself in the role of oppressed political dissident.

Persons: Donald J, Trump Organizations: Americano Media, ” Locations: Spanish, South Florida, Miami, Cuba, Venezuela, Cuban, Little Havana

☆ In Visit to Little Havana, Trump Plays for Sympathy and Votes.
▼ + stars: | 2023-06-13 | by ( Neil Vigdor | Frances Robles | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

Former President Donald J. Trump visited Little Havana in Miami on Tuesday immediately after his arraignment, his latest attempt to cast himself as a man persecuted by his political enemies. It was a not-subtle attempt to seek the sympathies of Latinos, in Florida and beyond. Mr. Trump’s visit to Versailles Restaurant, a landmark that is emblematic of the Cuban diaspora, came as Republicans have increasingly likened his indictment to corruption and political oppression in Latin American countries. “The targeting, prosecution, of a leading political opponent is the type of thing you see in dictatorships like Cuba and Venezuela,” she said. “It is commonplace there for rival candidates to be prosecuted, persecuted and put into jail.”

Persons: Donald J, Trump, Trump’s, Alina Habba, ” Organizations: Little, Mr Locations: Little Havana, Miami, Florida, Versailles, Cuban, Latin America, Cuba, Venezuela

For the second time this year, Democrats find themselves in a complicated position: torn between celebrating a long-sought indictment of Donald J. Trump and proceeding with caution. The party is in near-universal agreement that Mr. Trump should face federal charges for retaining classified documents and resisting investigators’ efforts to recover them. When Mr. Trump was indicted in March, Mr. Bennett questioned whether the offenses the former president had been accused of were worth the political risk of an indictment. This time, Mr. Bennett said, he has no doubts about the indictment’s necessity. Already, many leading Republicans have rallied around Mr. Trump; some have gone so far as to suggest outright war.

Persons: Donald J, Trump’s, Trump, ”, Greg Landsman, “, ” Matt Bennett, Bennett, Mr, “ Trump, Patricia Todd, Laleh Ispahani, George Soros, ” Maria Cardona, ” Ms, Cardona, ” Reid J, Epstein Organizations: Mr, Republican, Republicans, Democratic, Alabama Democratic Party, Democrats, Open Society Locations: New York City, York, Ohio, United States

☆ Vigilante Justice Rises in Haiti and Crime Plummets
▼ + stars: | 2023-06-03 | by ( Frances Robles | Andre Paultre | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

The 14 presumed gang members under arrest were arriving at a police station in Haiti’s capital, when a group of people overpowered the police, rounded up the suspects outside and used gasoline to burn them alive. The gruesome executions on April 24 marked the start of a brutal vigilante campaign to reclaim the streets of the capital, Port-au-Prince, from gangs that have inflicted terror on Haitians for nearly two years. In a nation wracked by extreme poverty and violence, civilians have taken up arms and killed at least 160 people believed to be gang members in the six weeks since a citizens “self-defense” movement known as “bwa kale” kicked off its vigilantism with the brazen police station attack, according to data gathered in a new report by a prominent Haitian human rights group. The result: a sharp drop in kidnappings and killings attributed to gangs in neighborhoods where people told The New York Times they had been afraid to leave their homes.

Persons: ” Organizations: New York Times Locations: Port

☆ A Cruise Ship for Florida’s Migrant Crisis Had Nowhere to Dock
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-21 | by ( Frances Robles | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: 1 min

KEY WEST, Fla. — Nearly 1,400 migrants from Cuba and Haiti took to the sea in rickety vessels and landed in the Florida Keys in January, overwhelming the local police. “We experienced chaos, a lack of a plan and a federal problem which became a local problem,” said the Monroe County sheriff, Rick Ramsay. Ron DeSantis stepped in, deploying air reconnaissance planes, assembling dozens of law enforcement agents and commissioning a cruise ship to house what the administration hoped would become a local army of state employees to help handle the migrant surge. But there was a problem: The $1 million cruise ship contract was signed before anyone realized that the vessel had nowhere to dock.

☆ New York Times Staffers Walk Off Job Amid Contract Fight
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-08 | by ( Steven Perlberg | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +3 min

New York Times staffers walked off the job on Thursday for one day. Union staffers are in heated contract negotiations with the paper over issues like pay. More than 1,100 union members had pledged to stop working at midnight on December 8 if an agreement had not been reached over a new union contract, with the stoppage planned for 24 hours. That is not where we are today," New York Times executive editor Joe Kahn wrote in a memo to staff, according to an unbylined Times story about the one-day strike beginning. Union members plan to picket outside of the New York Times headquarters on Thursday.

☆ Inside the New York Times' heated union fight, where a potential strike looms and the biggest sticking point is pay
▼ + stars: | 2022-09-28 | by ( Steven Perlberg | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +8 min

Will reporters at The New York Times really go on strike? The idea, unthinkable just a few months ago, is now on the lips of New York Times Guild members as the union's contract negotiations with management heat up. New York Times reporters have walked off the job before, like as part of a 1962-1963 citywide newspaper strike. But Robles said union members are upset that the Times' strong business footing has not translated into better pay. (The Times spokesperson countered that the paper was not seeing record profits).

☆ The possibility of a strike looms at The New York Times as its union battles management over wage hikes
▼ + stars: | 2022-09-27 | by ( Steven Perlberg | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +8 min

Will reporters at The New York Times really go on strike? The idea, unthinkable just a few months ago, is now on the lips of New York Times Guild members as the union's contract negotiations with management heat up. New York Times reporters have walked off the job before, like as part of a 1962-1963 citywide newspaper strike. The union at Wirecutter, the reviews site owned by the New York Times, walked off the job during the Black Friday shopping period last year, for instance. But Robles said union members are upset that the Times' strong business footing has not translated into better pay.

Search resuls for: "Frances Robles"

25 mentions found