by tyler | Jul 20, 2023 | CNN, world
A recently discovered ice core taken from beneath Greenland’s ice sheet decades ago has revealed that a large part of the country was ice-free around 400,000 years ago, when temperatures were similar to those the world is approaching now, according to a new report – an alarming finding that could have disastrous implications for sea level rise.
The study overturns previous assumptions that most of Greenland’s ice sheet has been frozen for millions of years, the authors said. Instead, moderate, natural warming led to large-scale melting and sea level rise of more than 1.4 meters (4.6 feet), according to the report published Thursday in the journal Science.
“When you look at what nature did in the past, as geoscientists, that’s our best clue to the future,” said Paul Bierman, a scientist at the University of Vermont and a lead author of the study.
What it indicates is “frightening,” he told CNN.
Levels of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere are 1.5 times higher now than they were 400,000 years ago, and global temperatures keep climbing.
If Greenland’s ice sheet saw rapid melting during a period of moderate warming, it “may be more sensitive to human-caused climate change than previously understood – and will be vulnerable to irreversible, rapid melting in coming centuries,” the study authors said in a statement.
This would have significant impacts on sea level rise. If Greenland’s ice sheet were to melt completely, sea levels would rise by about 7 meters (23 feet) causing devastation to the billions who live along the world’s coasts.
To complete the research, Bierman and a team of international scientists spent years analyzing frozen sediment from an ice core collected in 1966 at Camp Century, a US army base in northwest Greenland. Scientists had drilled through more than 4,500 feet of ice to pull up a 12-foot-long soil and rock sample from beneath the ice sheet.
At the time, there wasn’t the technology to understand the sediment very well and so it was lost in a freezer for decades, Bierman said. Then, in 2017, it was rediscovered in Denmark.
Bierman went to Copenhagen and brought two samples back to the University of Vermont to test. As the scientists started to sieve it to separate out the sediment, they were surprised to see twigs, mosses, leaves and seeds.
“We have a fossilized frozen ecosystem here,” said Bierman, “And what that meant, of course, is the ice sheet had gone away because you can’t grow plants under a mile of ice.”
The scientists still needed to figure out how long ago the plants had been growing. To establish the time frame, samples were passed to a team at Utah State University, which uses luminescence technology – a technique which allows them to date the last time the sediment was exposed to daylight.
The scientists calculated that the sediment was deposited in an ice-free environment roughly 416,000 years ago.
“It’s really the first bulletproof evidence that much of the Greenland ice sheet vanished when it got warm,” Bierman said. “Greenland’s past, preserved in 12 feet of frozen soil, suggests a warm, wet, and largely ice-free future for planet Earth,” he added.
The potential implications for sea level rise are enormous, Tammy Rittenour, a professor from Utah State University and study co-author said in a statement. “We are looking at meters of sea level rise, probably tens of meters. And then look at the elevation of New York City, Boston, Miami, Amsterdam. Look at India and Africa – most global population centers are near sea level.”
As well as contributing to sea level rise, the loss of the ice also accelerates global warming, as white ice, which reflects the sun’s energy away from the Earth’s surface, is replaced with darker rock and vegetation, which absorbs the sun’s energy.
“There’s a feedback that sets in once you start to get rid of the ice sheet where we warm up even faster,” Bierman said.
Andrew Shepherd, head of geography and environmental sciences at Northumbria University in the UK who was not involved in the study, said the research was important because it “increases our confidence in predictions of how much melting we can expect in a warmer climate.”
Jason Box, professor in glaciology at the Geological Survey of Denmark and Greenland who was also not involved in the study, said the results could force a reevaluation of established thinking.
“The current greenhouse gas emission-driven warming may reduce the Greenland ice sheet faster than forecast,” he told CNN.
For Bierman, it all adds up to evidence that Greenland’s ice sheet is fragile.
Unless the world takes radical action to bring levels of planet-heating pollution to zero, and simultaneously works to remove the carbon pollution already in the atmosphere, he said “we’re dooming the Greenland ice sheet, and a lot of that sea level rise is going to come quickly.”
“Geologists don’t usually get very upset about what we find,” he said. “But this is really upsetting.”
by tyler | Jul 6, 2023 | CNN, world
Here is a look at Arab Spring, anti-government protests that began in Tunisia in December 2010 and spread throughout the Middle East and Africa in 2011.
January 4, 2011 – Protests begin, sparked by an increase in food prices.
January 9, 2011 – Within the span of a week, three people are killed and 300 others are injured during riots.
January 22, 2011 – Demonstrators defy a government ban on street protests and march in the city of Algiers. Nine people are arrested and 19 are injured, including eight police officers. The people participating in the protest call for the government to release detainees and lift a state of emergency that dates back to 1992.
February 25, 2011 – The government ends the state of emergency, lifting restrictions on freedom of speech and assembly.
February 14, 2011 – During a street protest in the village of Daih, a demonstrator is shot by police and dies the following day.
February 15, 2011 – Thousands of demonstrators gain control of the Pearl Square roundabout in Manama.
February 17, 2011 – In the early morning hours, riot police move into the Pearl Square area and disperse the crowd. Several people are killed.
February 19, 2011 – On the order of the government, security forces withdraw from Pearl Square. Protesters retake the area.
February 26, 2011 – Opposition leader Hassan Mushaimaa returns from exile.
March 14, 2011 – Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates send in military troops under the banner of the Gulf Cooperation Council.
March 15, 2011 – A state of emergency, ordered by King Hamad bin Isa al-Khalifa, goes into effect.
March 18, 2011 – Security forces demolish the Pearl Monument amid arrests of prominent opposition figures.
June 1, 2011 – The government lifts the emergency laws imposed on March 15.
June 13, 2011 – The trial of 47 doctors and nurses begins in Manama. They are accused of taking control of a hospital during protests.
August 8, 2011 – More than 140 political detainees are released, including two former members of Parliament.
September 1, 2011 – Thousands of demonstrators take to the streets to protest the death of a 14-year-old boy, allegedly killed by riot police.
September 17, 2011 – Tens of thousands of people protest following the funeral of a man who died in questionable circumstances. He allegedly died following a tear gas attack on his father’s home. The government maintains he died of sickle cell anemia.
September 29, 2011 – Twenty doctors are convicted of trying to overthrow the government and are sentenced to prison terms ranging from five to 15 years.
November 23, 2011 – An independent commission set up by the king concludes that Bahrain’s police used excessive force and torture against civilians in the crackdown against protesters. Days after the report is released, the king says the country will establish a committee to carry out the reforms recommended by the commission.
January 25, 2011 – Anti-government protests erupt. Several thousand demonstrators take over Tahrir Square in Cairo.
January 29, 2011 – President Hosni Mubarak promises government reform and fires his cabinet.
February 1, 2011 – Mubarak announces he will not seek reelection in September. Protests continue, calling for Mubarak’s immediate resignation.
February 10, 2011 – Mubarak announces he is delegating power to Vice President Omar Suleiman but will remain in office.
February 11, 2011 – Suleiman announces that Mubarak has stepped down. The Armed Forces Supreme Council is assigned to run the affairs of the country.
February 13, 2011 – The Armed Forces Supreme Council dissolves Egypt’s parliament and suspends the constitution.
January 2011 – Demonstrations begin in cities throughout the country.
February 1, 2011 – King Abdullah II replaces his cabinet and appoints a new prime minister in response to public pressure.
February 18, 2011 – Pro- and anti-government protesters clash, resulting in injuries.
March 25, 2011 – More than 100 people are injured during clashes between pro- and anti-government protesters in Amman.
March 28, 2011 – Prime Minister Marouf Bakhit announces that security forces will arrest anyone who tries to prevent another from expressing his/her views in a non-violent, legal way.
June 12, 2011 – King Abdullah II announces sweeping reforms in a televised speech. He announces that the country will establish a parliamentary majority government.
February 18-19, 2011 – Hundreds of protesters gather to demand greater rights for longtime residents who are not citizens and to seek the release of previously arrested protesters. They clash with security forces.
March 31, 2011 – State-run media reports that government ministers from the cabinet have resigned to help restore unity and security in the country.
November 16, 2011 – Opposition protesters force their way into the legislature to demand the prime minister step down.
November 28, 2011 – The state-run news agency KUNA reports that the emir of Kuwait has accepted the resignation of the prime minister.
December 6, 2011 – The emir dissolves the country’s parliament in a further effort to restore stability.
February 16, 2011 – Police crackdown on protesters as anti-government demonstrations take place in Benghazi. Within days, the protests spread to Tripoli and more than 200 people are killed amid the upheaval.
February 22, 2011 – President Moammar Gadhafi makes a defiant speech, vowing to die a martyr rather than step down.
February 26, 2011 – The United Nations Security Council imposes sanctions against Libya, including a freeze on Gadhafi’s assets.
March 2-3, 2011 – The Libyan military carries out airstrikes against two towns as Gadhafi tries to take back control of an area seized by the opposition.
March 7, 2011 – NATO announces it has launched around-the-clock surveillance flights of Libya as it considers various options for dealing with escalating violence.
March 17, 2011 – The UN Security Council votes to impose a no-fly zone over Libya and take “all necessary measures” to protect civilians.
March 19, 2011 – French, British and American military forces begin the first phase of Operation Odyssey Dawn, aimed at enforcing the no-fly zone.
June 27, 2011 – The International Criminal Court issues an arrest warrant for Gadhafi.
October 20, 2011 – Gadhafi dies of a gunshot wound to the head after being captured by rebel forces in his hometown of Sirte.
October 27, 2011 – The United Nations Security Council votes unanimously to end military operations in Libya.
For developments in Libya after October 2011, see Libya Civil War Fast Facts.
March 18, 2011 – Security forces clash with protesters in Daraa, who are demonstrating for the release of children and teens detained for writing political graffiti, according to a Human Rights Watch report.
March 23-25, 2011 – Protests continue in Daraa. More than 30 protesters are killed by security forces.
March 29, 2011 – President Bashar al-Assad’s cabinet resigns.
March 30, 2011 – Assad delivers a 45-minute speech at the National Assembly. He acknowledges that the government has not met the people’s needs but he does not offer any concrete changes.
April 1, 2011 – Nine people are killed in the Damascus suburb of Douma during protests. Demonstrations are held in other cities including Daraa, Homs and Al Sanameen.
April 3, 2011 – Assad appoints a new prime minister, Adel Safar.
April 8, 2011 – More than three dozen protesters are killed during demonstrations across Syria, according to the National Organization for Human Rights in Syria. The government claims the unrest is being provoked by outside instigators.
April 21, 2011 – Assad lifts the country’s 48-year-old state of emergency. He also abolishes the Higher State Security Court and issues a decree “regulating the right to peaceful protest, as one of the basic human rights guaranteed by the Syrian Constitution.”
April 25, 2011 – The government sends troops into Daraa to carry out what witnesses describe as a brutal crackdown. Between 4,000 and 5,000 members of the army and security forces raid Daraa and shoot indiscriminately. At least seven people are killed, according to an activist with the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.
May 31, 2011 – Assad issues a decree granting amnesty for political crimes but a report from the state-run news agency suggests that protesters are not being offered amnesty, just reduced punishments for alleged crimes.
June 6, 2011 – State TV reports that 120 security forces have been killed, including 82 in the city of Jisr Al-Shugar. The government blames the deaths on “armed gangs” in the city.
June 20, 2011 – In a speech, Assad says that he will not negotiate with people fighting against Syrian forces. He also offers promises of reform, without any specifics. Human rights activists say that more than 1,100 people have died during months of protests.
June 24, 2011 – According to Turkish government officials, there are 11,739 Syrian refugees in Turkey.
September 2, 2011 – The European Union bans the import of Syrian oil.
November 12, 2011 – The Arab League suspends Syria’s membership.
December 26, 2011 – Members of an Arab League delegation arrive to look into conditions on the ground and whether Syria is upholding a commitment to end a violent crackdown.
For developments in Syria after 2011, see Syria Civil War Fast Facts.
January 4, 2011 – Mohamed Bouazizi, a 26-year-old vegetable cart vendor, dies days after he set himself on fire in protest of police confiscating his cart. His act of self-immolation sparks widespread protests.
January 14, 2011 – Prime Minister Mohamed Ghannouchi announces that he has taken over the responsibilities of President Zine el Abidine Ben Ali, who has fled the country.
January 15, 2011 – Parliamentary speaker Fouad Mebazaa is sworn in as acting president. He asks Ghannouchi to remain as interim prime minister.
January 21, 2011 – Ghannouchi announces that the country will hold its first national elections since the country gained independence from France in 1956.
February 26, 2011 – According to the Interior Ministry, three people are killed in clashes between demonstrators and security forces in Tunis. More than 100 people are arrested.
February 27, 2011 – Ghannouchi resigns. Tunisia’s interim president selects Al-Baji Qa’ed Al-Sebsi as the new prime minister.
March 9, 2011 – A Tunisian court issues a ruling dissolving the Rally for Constitutional Democracy, the party of ousted president Ben Ali.
June 20, 2011 – After a one-day trial, Ben Ali is convicted of corruption in absentia.
October 23, 2011 – National elections are held for the first time. Candidates compete for 218 seats in the Constitutional Assembly.
January 27, 2011 – Protests begin.
February 2, 2011 – President Ali Abdullah Saleh says he will not seek reelection in 2013.
February 21, 2011 – Amid protests, Saleh refuses to step down, comparing the protests to a virus spreading through the region.
February 23, 2011 – State-run news service Saba reports that Saleh is calling for an end to the protests and says he supports the creation of a national unity government to oversee upcoming parliamentary elections.
February 28, 2011 – Yemen’s main opposition bloc rejects Saleh’s call to form a unity government.
March 8, 2011 – Dozens of anti-government demonstrators are wounded when security forces fire into the air and shoot tear gas into a crowd of tens of thousands of protesters in front of Sanaa University, witnesses say.
March 18, 2011 – Fifty-two people are killed in a crackdown on protesters.
March 19-21, 2011 – Saleh dismisses his cabinet and numerous Yemeni officials resign in the wake of the deaths of 52 protesters. Saleh and a top military general discuss a deal for a peaceful transition of power that would allow Saleh to stay in place for the rest of the year. Three prominent generals declare their support for the protesters.
March 23, 2011 – Saleh accepts opposition demands for a presidential election by the end of the year and other constitutional reforms.
April 8, 2011 – Tens of thousands of demonstrators gather in Sanaa and Taiz. Two people are killed and 300 are injured in Taiz when security forces open fire on the crowd with tear gas and live ammunition.
April 23, 2011 – Saleh tentatively agrees to a deal, arranged by the Gulf Cooperation Council, to leave office within 30 days. He later refuses to sign it.
May 9, 2011 – Yemeni security forces kill six protesters and injure hundreds more in Taiz.
May 23, 2011 – More than three dozen people are killed when fighting breaks out in Sanaa after Saleh refuses to step down.
May 25, 2011 – Clashes between tribesmen and government forces lead to the closure of the Sanaa International Airport. Tribal forces also take control of government buildings including the Interior Ministry.
May 30, 2011 – Security forces use bulldozers and water cannons to try to disperse demonstrators in Freedom Square in Taiz. The protesters’ tent encampment is burned down.
June 3, 2011 – Opposition forces attack the presidential palace, launching projectiles at the building. Saleh is injured and several others are killed.
June 4, 2011 – Vice President Abed Rabbo Mansour Hadi is left in charge while Saleh travels to Saudi Arabia to undergo medical treatment. Saleh suffers from burns over 40% of his body and a collapsed lung.
June 7, 2011 – Tribal fighters take control of Taiz.
June 29, 2011 – Hadi tells CNN the government has lost control over five provinces.
September 2, 2011 – More than two million people demonstrate across the country, calling on revolutionary forces to take action against Saleh’s regime.
September 23, 2011 – Saleh returns to Yemen, after more than three months of medical treatment in Saudi Arabia.
November 23, 2011 – Saleh signs a deal that will allow him to retain the title of president for three months but requires him to hand over executive powers to the vice president.
by tyler | Jun 29, 2023 | CNN, world
There are very few winners in the climate crisis, but scientists are pretty sure there’s going to be at least one: Mosquitoes.
These insects – annoying at best, deadly at worst – thrive in warmth and humidity. As climate change ushers in more frequent and more severe heat waves, as well as storms and floods that leave behind pools of stagnant water in which most breed, it’s boom time for mosquitoes.
For the first time in decades, the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is warning of several locally acquired cases of malaria in the United States – news that has thrust mosquitoes into the spotlight. While it’s too soon to know whether these specific cases are connected to climate change, scientists have been warning that malaria could become more common in the US as temperatures rise there.
It has raised fresh concerns about mosquitoes pushing into regions they have not been in for generations – or ever – and what that might mean for the spread of the deadly diseases they transmit.
Rising temperatures allow mosquitoes to grow faster and live longer. Whereas before they would die out during harsh winters in many places, now they have a greater shot at surviving and more time to build up their populations. Heat also speeds up the time it takes for a parasite or virus to mature inside a mosquito.
“The hotter the temperature gets, the shorter that process becomes. So not only are these mosquitoes living longer, but they’re potentially becoming infectious sooner,” said Oliver Brady, an associate professor at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine.
They gain other benefits from heat, too. When it’s hotter, more people tend to be outside in the morning and late in the afternoon – prime time for mosquitoes.
Heat is also pushing cities to increase their amount of green space, which has a vital cooling effect but could also provide ideal new breeding grounds for the blood-sucking insects.
In the US, the number of “mosquito days” – those with the hot and humid conditions they love – has increased across the country, according to a recent analysis from Climate Central, a nonprofit research group.
Researchers looked at data spanning more than four decades in nearly 250 locations and found that more than 70% of them had become more hospitable to mosquitoes.
While most of the approximately 200 mosquito species in the US are harmless, there are about a dozen which can pass on diseases to humans, including chikungunya, dengue, zika and West Nile viruses.
While serious mosquito-borne diseases recmain rare in the US, other countries are not so lucky.
In sub-Saharan Africa, where malaria has had devastating consequences, climate change is helping mosquitoes expand their range significantly, according to recent research.
Malaria-transmitting Anopheles mosquitoes have, on average, moved to higher elevations by around 21 feet a year and southward by nearly 3 miles a year, a Georgetown University report found.
It’s a pace that follows climate change and could have significant consequences for areas that have never experienced malaria before and are likely to be unprepared, said Colin Carlson, a global change biologist at Georgetown University and co-author of the report.
Dengue fever is another potentially deadly disease, which is poised to increase in a warmer world.
Also known as “breakbone fever,” it causes fever, nausea, vomiting, fatigue and diarrhea and, in some cases, internal bleeding and death. There is no cure or specific treatment for dengue, leaving sufferers little choice but to ride out the symptoms.
Peru is currently grappling with the worst outbreak of mosquito-borne dengue fever on record, which has infected around 150,000 people and killed more than 250.
Experts have said that unusually high levels of rainfall and warmth have provided ideal conditions for the mosquitoes. While scientists are yet to assess the role climate change has played in the outbreak, Carlson said the links seem clear.
“I’m not a betting man, and I would put money on when we go and do that study, it will be climate change,” he said.
Now dengue is knocking on the door of Europe and the US.
“A billion new people will be exposed to the right weather conditions for dengue transmission, and most of those people are in Western Europe and the United States and temperate China,” said Carlson.
There have been locally spread outbreaks in Texas, Florida, Hawaii and Arizona. And last week, the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control warned that the Aedes albopictus species – which can transmit dengue and chikungunya – is pushing northwards and westwards in Europe as climate change grips the world’s fastest warming continent.
“What is surprising is the speed of the spread,” Celine Gossner, principal expert in emerging and vector-borne diseases at the ECDC, told CNN. In just a decade, the number of regions where this mosquito is established has increased three-fold, she said.
Even with this new exposure, however, the US and Europe are unlikely to see huge outbreaks, or large numbers of fatalities from dengue virus.
“The story of future change is really more about big increases in areas that already have dengue, that’s going to get much worse,” Brady said. He pointed to China and parts of India as particularly at risk. “That’s a really scary situation because vast numbers of people live in these areas and even minor changes could potentially be catastrophic,” he said.
Communities already on the front lines of the climate crisis are always going to be most affected by mosquito-borne disease, and that is where investment should be directed, said Shannon LaDeau, a disease ecologist at the Cary Institute of Ecosystems Studies.
But the shift of mosquito-borne diseases into regions like the US and Europe is still likely to be a shock.
“Folks that live in the temperate zone are going to see their way of life change pretty dramatically because they’ve never had to worry about it before,” LaDeau told CNN.
The climate crisis is not all upside for mosquitoes. Some places may simply be getting too hot.
“There’s some threshold after which the chemistry in their body just doesn’t function anymore,” LaDeau said. The bad news is that these places are likely to be getting too hot for humans, too.
There is still much that remains unknown about how mosquitoes will react to the climate crisis. The relationship between climate change and disease is complex, Gossner said.
We know a lot about how temperature changes mosquitoes’ ability to transmit disease, a small amount about how quickly mosquitoes are moving to new places and very little about whether overall mosquito populations are growing, Carlson said.
Scientists are working to develop tools to be able to better assess the link between mosquito-borne diseases and climate change.
In the meantime, there are ways people can protect themselves from risk, including wearing mosquito repellent, putting screens on windows and doors and getting rid of any stagnant water from places like flowerpots and gutters.
Scientists are also working on high-tech methods to reduce populations. A project in Florida has been trialing a genetically modified mosquito designed to pass on a lethal gene that kills female mosquitoes – which are the ones that bite.
Other experiments involve using wolbachia bacteria, which can prevent viruses replicating inside a mosquito, making them less likely to transmit viruses.
There are also vaccines on the horizon for diseases such as dengue and malaria. “That’s a really big deal,” said Carlson. But whether these will be shared equitably around the world is another question, he added.
“It’s a long road to try to understand how better to use those tools. But there’s a lot of hope on the horizon,” Brady said.
Ultimately, tackling climate change will have a huge impact.
The path the world takes on reducing planet-heating pollution will lead to very different futures for mosquito-borne diseases, Brady said. “Aggressive [climate] mitigation would be by far the lowest risk.”
by tyler | Jun 28, 2023 | CNN, world
Here’s a look at the life of Jean-Bertrand Aristide, the first democratically elected president of Haiti.
Birth date: July 15, 1953
Birth place: Port Salut, Haiti
Birth name: Jean-Bertrand Aristide
Father: Joseph Aristide, farmer
Mother: Marie (Pierre-Louis) Aristide
Marriage: Mildred (Trouillot) Aristide (January 20, 1996-present)
Children: Michaelle and Christine
Education: Grand Seminaire Notre Dame, Port-au-Prince, Haiti; Universite d’Etat d’Haiti, B.A.; University of Montreal, Canada, M.A.; University of South Africa, Pretoria, Ph.D.
Religion: Roman Catholic
Elected president of Haiti twice. Both administrations were overthrown.
Former Roman Catholic priest, a member of the Society of St. Francis de Sales.
His wife, Mildred Aristide, is a Haitian-American lawyer from New York.
Studied in Israel.
1974 – Enters the priesthood with the Society of St. Francis de Sales (Salesians) in the Dominican Republic.
1983 – Is ordained and assigned to St. Jean-Bosco, a poor parish in a Port-au-Prince, Haiti, neighborhood.
1986 – Is held hostage by Salesian followers for two weeks for condoning and supporting the opposition to the new post-Jean-Claude Duvalier regime.
September 11, 1988 – The St. Jean-Bosco parish church is attacked during morning mass, with 13 dead and more than 70 injured.
December 15, 1988 – Aristide is expelled from the Society of St. Francis de Sales for his “incitement to hate and violence.”
December 16, 1990 – Is elected president of Haiti with more than 67% of the vote.
February 7, 1991 – Takes the oath of office as the 40th president of Haiti.
October 1, 1991 – Flees Haiti for Venezuela, after a coup led by Brigadier General Raoul Cedras overthrows the government.
October 15, 1994 – Is reinstated as president of Haiti, after a US-brokered agreement. Cedras and his staff resign and are exiled.
October 17, 1994 – Under pressure from the Vatican, submits a letter formally requesting to leave the priesthood.
February 7, 1996 – First smooth transition from one president to another in Haiti’s history as Rene Preval is sworn in as the 41st president of Haiti.
1996 – Founds the Aristide Foundation for Democracy.
November 1996 – Forms and leads the Fanmi Lavalas political party.
November 26, 2000 – Aristide is reelected as president with 91.69% of the vote.
February 7, 2001 – Is sworn in as the 42nd president of Haiti.
December 17, 2001 – The presidential palace is stormed during an attempted coup believed to be led by Guy Philippe. Seven people are killed.
January 13, 2004 – Announces new legislative elections after his administration comes under fire for rigging previous elections.
February 25, 2004 – Philippe and rebel forces surround Port-au-Prince and announce plans to arrest Aristide.
February 29, 2004 – Resigns as president and leaves Haiti with his wife on board a US military plane to the Central African Republic.
2007 – Receives Ph.D. in African languages from the University of South Africa.
November 26, 2009 – Haiti’s electoral council bans Aristide’s party from participating in the next legislative elections.
January 12, 2010 – A 7.0 magnitude earthquake strikes 14 miles west of Haiti, destroying most of the capital of Port-au-Prince.
January 15, 2010 – From Pretoria, South Africa, the exiled Aristide announces his wish to return home to help Haitian earthquake survivors.
March 18, 2011 – Aristide returns to Haiti after seven years in exile.
May 8, 2013 – Appears in court in Port-au-Prince in connection with the investigation of journalist Jean Leopold Dominique’s murder.
June 21, 2021 – Le Nouvelliste reports that Aristide has tested positive for Covid-19 and will seek treatment in Cuba.
by tyler | Jun 20, 2023 | CNN, world
A billionaire father and son duo, a wealthy explorer and a diver with decades of experience exploring the Titanic are among the five people on board the submersible that has disappeared en route to view the world’s most famous shipwreck.
Authorities said the small vessel – roughly the size of a minivan – was carrying five people when its mothership lost contact with it on Sunday morning, about 1 hour and 45 minutes into its descent to explore the Titanic wreckage.
While the names of those on board have not been released by the authorities, British businessman Hamish Harding, Pakistani billionaire Shahzada Dawood and his son Sulaiman Dawood, and French diver Paul-Henry Nargeolet have been confirmed to be on board the craft.
The fifth person on board has been identified only as the vessel’s pilot.
Harding, who has an impressive list of extreme expeditions under his belt, is based in the United Arab Emirates and is a trained jet pilot. He is the chairman of Action Aviation, an aircraft brokerage. The company said in statement posted on social media that Harding was on board the submersible.
He made headlines in 2019 for being part of a flight crew that broke the world record for the fastest circumnavigation of the globe via both poles.
In 2020, Harding became one of the first people to dive to Challenger Deep in the Pacific Ocean, widely believed to be the deepest point in the world’s oceans. Last year, he paid an undisclosed sum of money for one of the seats on Blue Origin’s space flight.
He has also been part of two record-breaking trips to the South Pole: in 2016, he accompanied the astronaut Buzz Aldrin when he became the oldest person to reach the South Pole. In 2020, he went there with his son Giles, who, at 12 years old, became the youngest person to get to the spot.
Harding is also a founding member of the board of trustees of The Explorers Club, a New York-based group that has been involved in many of the world’s most prestigious discoveries.
The day before the vessel went missing, Harding wrote on social media that he was “proud to finally announce that I joined OceanGate Expeditions for their RMS TITANIC Mission as a mission specialist on the sub going down to the Titanic.”
Shahzada Dawood and his son, Sulaiman Dawood, have also been confirmed to be among the five people aboard the submersible.
A statement from their family said the duo had embarked on the “journey to visit the remnants of the Titanic in the Atlantic Ocean.”
“As of now, contact has been lost with their submersible craft and there is limited information available,” the statement added.
The Dawoods are a prominent Pakistani business family. Dawood Hercules Corporation, their business, is among the largest corporations in the country, with a portfolio spanning energy, petrochemicals, fertilizers, IT and food and agriculture.
The business is headed by the family patriarch Hussain Dawood, with his sons Shahzada and Abdul Samad leading various divisions and his daughter Sabrina Dawood in charge of the charitable arm of the business, according to the Dawood Hercules Corporation’s website.
Shahzada Dawood is also trustee of the SETI Institiute in California, a research organization, and a number of other foundations.
Harding said in a social media post on Saturday that diver Paul-Henri Nargeolet, was scheduled to be on the dive with him.
“The team on the sub has a couple of legendary explorers, some of which have done over 30 dives to the RMS Titanic since the 1980s including PH Nargeolet,” he wrote in a Facebook post.
Nargeolet’s family confirmed to CNN affiliate BFMTV that he was aboard the vessel.
The diver has decades of experience exploring the Titanic. He serves as the director of underwater research at RMS Titanic Inc., the company that has exclusive rights to salvage artifacts from the ship.
According to his biography on the company’s website, Nargeolet completed 35 dives to the Titanic wreck and supervised the recovery of 5,000 artifacts. He spent 22 years in the French Navy, where he rose to the rank of a commander, the website says.
David Gallo, senior adviser for strategic initiatives at RMS Titanic Inc. and a colleague of Nargeolet, told CNN the French diver is “the best” at deep-sea searching. He said that “everything that can be done, is being done.”
“Something we always think about as explorers and scientists … we’ve always known something like this could happen and now it’s happened. But we’re still pretty much in shock, the community is. I hope it has a good ending,” he said.
A spokesperson for the French Foreign Office said the ministry was not in a position to confirm Nargeolet’s disappearance.
by tyler | Jun 19, 2023 | CNN, world
The sinking of a packed migrant boat off the coast of Greece may be “the worst tragedy ever” in the Mediterranean sea, according to the EU Commissioner for Home Affairs Ylva Johansson.
Dozens of people were killed and hundreds more left missing when the boat, traveling from the coastal city of Tobruk in Libya to Italy, capsized off the coast of Greece earlier this week. The true toll of the disaster is yet to become clear.
“We don’t have all information yet on what has happened but it seems like this is the worst ever tragedy we’ve seen in the Mediterranean,” she told a press conference in Brussels on Friday.
The tragedy has shone a spotlight on the EU refugee crisis in which every year, tens of thousands of migrants fleeing war, persecution, climate change and poverty risk treacherous routes to Europe.
Johansson condemned the role of “smugglers” who put people on the boats. “They are not sending them to Europe, they are sending them to death. This is what they’re doing and it’s absolutely necessary to prevent it,” she said.
“Unfortunately, we have seen this coming because since the start of the year, there was a new modus operandi with these fishing boats leaving from the eastern part of Libya… and we’ve seen an increase of 600% of these departures this year,” she added, stressing the need to find “different ways to fight the smugglers and save lives.”
“When it comes to fighting the smugglers, we can’t rely on only one way to do that. We have to use intelligence – we have to use common police investigations together with countries of origin, with countries of transit, with countries of departure,” she said.
Other global bodies such as the International Organization for Migration (IOM) and the UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR) called for “urgent and decisive action” to prevent further deaths in the Mediterranean and emphasized “the duty to rescue people in distress at sea without delay.”
Greek authorities have faced criticism for how the disaster was handled.
On Friday, they denied claims that the boat had capsized after the coast guard attempted to tow it to shore.
Authorities had initially said the coast guard kept its distance but their assistance “had been declined” after they threw a rope to the vessel to “stabilize and check if it needed help.”
Tarek Aldroobi, who had three relatives on board, told CNN that they had seen Greek authorities towing the vessel with ropes, but says they were tied in the “wrong places” – which caused it to capsize.
“Their boat was in a good condition and the Greek navy tried towing them to the beach but the ropes were tied in the wrong places,” Aldroobi said. “When the Greek navy tried pulling them it caused the boat to capsize.”
Speaking to Greek national broadcaster ERT, government spokesperson Ilias Siakanderis said the coast guard arrived two hours before the boat capsized after its engine broke down and there had been “no connection” between the two.
“The engine broke down at 1:40 a.m. and at 2:00 a.m. it sank – therefore there can be no connection between (the coast guard approaching the boat and the time of its sinking),” he told ERT.
The Hellenic coast guard also defended its response.
“When the boat capsized, we were not even next to boat. How could we be towing it?” Nikos Alexiou, a spokesman for the coast guard told CNN.
Alexiou said their patrol boat only used a small rope to stabilize itself while it was close to the migrant boat hours earlier when they approached to check its condition, but they were not equipped to tow it.
“Let’s not mix up the big boats, specialized rescue boats, that have specialized ropes to tow boats. Our patrol boat could not tow the fishing boat,” he said.
According to Alexiou the coast guard had been observing the boat at close but not mooring distance, when they started approaching following an alert that the migrant boat’s engine had failed.
“Regretfully there was movement of people, a shift in weight probably caused by panic and the boat capsized. As soon as we got there, we started our rescue operation to collect those who were in the water,” he explained.
The NGO Alarm Phone meanwhile alleged that the coast guard was aware that the boat was in distress hours before it capsized.
The coast guard this week said it had repeatedly asked the boat if it needed assistance and were told it did not. Authorities also previously said they could not intervene with the boat without being asked for assistance, as the boat was in international waters.
