Bruce Willis‘ wife Emma Hemming has admitted it’s ‘hard to know’ whether or not the Hollywood actor is aware of his brain illness.

In February of this year, Emma announced that the 68-year-old star had been diagnosed with frontotemporal dementia (FTD) – an uncommon type of the disease that causes a deterioration in behavior, personality and language.  

Speaking to Hoda Kotb on Monday’s edition of Today, Emma, 45, fought back tears as she gave an update on Bruce’s ‘hard’ condition and said that just being in the know ‘makes it a little bit easier’.

When Hoda, 59, asked how Bruce is doing, Emma took a deep breath and replied: ‘What I’m learning is that dementia is hard. It’s hard on the person diagnosed. It’s also hard on the family. And that is no different for Bruce or myself or our girls.

‘And when they say that this is a family disease, it really is,’ she said, referring to her two young daughters, Mabel and Evelyn.

When asked how she went about explaining his illness to their children, Emma explained: ‘I think it’s always been… we’re a very honest and open household. 

‘And, the most important thing was to be able for us to say what the disease was, explain what it is because when you know what the disease is from a medical standpoint it sort of all makes sense.

‘So it was important that we let them know what it is because, you know, I don’t want there to be any stigma or shame attached to their dad’s diagnosis, or for any form of dementia.’

When mother-of-two Hoda asked: ‘Does he know what’s going on? Is that something he’s aware of?’ Emma paused before responding: ‘Hard to know.’

As Emma composed herself, Emma Dickinson, who is the CEO of The Association for Frontotemporal Degeneration (AFTD), joined in and explained: ‘What we know is, obviously, the disease can start in the frontal or the temporal lobes like the name signifies.

‘One of the things that the frontal lobe controls is self-insight. We don’t know. Some people, that’s the first thing they lose, any understanding that they themselves have changed and other people retain that for a long time.’

Emma went on to explain how it felt coming to terms with Bruce’s diagnosis, and said: ‘I think it was the blessing and the curse. You know, to sort of finally understand what was happening so that I can be into the acceptance of what is.

‘It doesn’t make it any less painful, but just being in the acceptance and just being in the know of what happening to Bruce just makes it a little bit easier.

‘There is so many beautiful things happening in our lives. It is just really important for me to look up from the grief and the sadness so that I can see what is happening around us,’ Emma added. 

In a particularly touching moment, Hoda asked Emma what she thinks Bruce is teaching their girls as they all come to terms with his illness as a family.

‘Honestly, he is the gift that keeps on giving. Love, patience, resilience, so much…’ Emma said.

‘And he’s teaching me and our whole… I mean, you know, for me to be out here doing this, this is not my comfort zone, but this is the power of Bruce.’

Hoda continued: ‘I have heard from people that have an ailing family member, and I remember this from a friend of mine… she said, “my husband’s diagnosis made my kids better people”. Is that what you’re noticing?’

‘That is what I’m noticing,’ Emma replied. ‘Listen, I think my kids would be great no matter what! And this is not what I would want for them. But really, like I said, it is teaching them so much and how to care and love and it’s a beautiful thing amongst the sadness.’

She confirmed that she refers to herself as Bruce’s ‘care partner’ as opposed to his ‘caretaker’, and also noted the importance of taking care of herself as well.

‘It’s so important to ask for help and support. And you can look to organizations like the AFTD, like Hilarity For Charity… it is sort of a great starting point.

 

‘And it’s important for care partners to look after themselves so that they can be the best care, partner for the person that they’re caring for,’ she added.

Emma also has support from Bruce’s ex-wife Demi Moore and their three grown up daughters; Rumer, 35, Scout, 32, and 29-year-old Tallulah.

Five of Manchester United players have been brutally handed woeful grades by German newspaper Bild following their performances in their 4-3 defeat by Bayern Munich.

Erik ten Hag‘s men were well-beaten by Harry Kane‘s Bayern on Wednesday night despite the close scoreline and the defeat means the struggling Red Devils have now lost four of their first six games in 2023-24, including three in a row.

And nearly half of United’s starting XI for the clash at the Allianz Arena have been given Bild’s second-lowest grade possible in their player ratings following the game.

Four of the five United players given a ‘5’ by Bild – with 1 being their best rating and 6 being the worst – were predictably in defence after Bayern picked them apart with ease.

United’s new £47.2million goalkeeper Andre Onana was given the low score for his calamitous mistake for Bayern’s first goal, after Leroy Sane‘s shot squirmed under his gloves and rolled into the back of his net. 

He has now leaked 14 goals in six games since replacing David de Gea.

Both centre backs, Lisandro Martinez and Victor Linelof, were also given the paltry scores while Diogo Dalot was hammered for his performance by the German newspaper.

Facundo Pellistri also failed to escape the damning low score as he filled in for Antony on the right-hand side.

Ten Hag himself received the second-lowest rating possible despite his side’s late comeback that left them to within one goal of tying it up in the dying moments.

Sergio Reguilon and Christian Eriksen were both give 4s while the rest of United’s starting XI – Ramus Hojlund, Marcus Rashford, Bruno Fernandes and Casemiro – all received the average score of 3 by Bild. 

And it wasn’t just the German press that laid into the Red Devils following the shocking defensive display in Munich.

Spanish sports newspaper Marca ruthlessly labelled United a ‘small team’ after shipping four goals.

Marca’s Ramon Garcia wrote: ‘The Dutch coach [Ten Hag] closes one of the most difficult weeks in memory at Old Trafford for the Red Devils in Munich. Manchester United came out to the Allianz Arena as the big team it is supposed to be, but each blow from Bayern turned it into a small one little by little.’

French news outlet L’Equipe – famous for their own brutal player ratings – claimed the result plunged United a ‘little deeper into crisis’ while Italian paper La Gazzetta dello Sport echoed Paul Scholes’ comments, claiming the team ‘collapsed psychologically’.

United went 2-0 down at the Allianz Arena after Onana’s howler gifted Sane the opener in the 28th minute before Serge Gnabry doubled the host’s advantage four minutes later.

They pulled one back through new £72million striker Hojlund but again wilted after Kane’s controversial penalty restored Bayern’s two-goal lead.

Casemiro scored two late goals for Ten Hag’s team, either side of Mathys Tel adding a fourth for the hosts in stoppage time. 

Speaking on TNT Sports, former Man United star Scholes claimed his former side were guilty of collapsing in adversity.

Scholes conceded United had done well to score three times against the German champions on their home turf but believes Bayern could have inflicted even more damage on Ten Hag’s under-pressure team. 

‘There is a weakness to them,’ Scholes said. ‘There is a soft underbelly and they do seem to collapse a bit when things are going wrong. 

‘They scored three goals and that is good, but I felt Bayern could then turn it on and score another.

‘I thought there was a big distance between the teams, in that second half especially. 

‘First half I thought they did well but still conceded two goals through a lack of concentration. 

‘There is experience in the team but I don’t think it is being used. Concentration in Europe is so important, once you concede one goal, it can turn into two and three. 

‘None of those centre halves are saying “look Casemiro and Eriksen get in here”. 

‘Are Casemiro and Eriksen saying to the wide players come in next to me, lets calm the game down?’

The result only heaps more pressure on Ten Hag, who is facing huge issues both on and off the pitch as he desperately tries to turn the club around.

Brutal violence hits Magaluf’s notorious Punta Ballena strip: Brit, 29, is arrested after fight between two groups of men breaks out when someone tries to help KO’d victim of ANOTHER brawl

• A 29-year-old British national has been arrested following a brutal fight in Spain 

By Natalia Penza

Published: 07:06 EDT, 14 August 2023 | Updated: 14:10 EDT, 14 August 2023

NAME: Tyrique Hyde

AGE: 24

FROM: Essex

OCCUPATION: Footballer 

WHAT WILL YOU BRING TO THE VILLA? I’ll bring vibes, confidence, good energy and honesty. I don’t sit on the fence, if I have an opinion I will speak up. I’m also not afraid to go after what I want 

CLAIM T0 FAME? Toby Aromolaran is one of my best friends, we grew up together and were in the same class at school 

NAME: Catherine Agbaje

AGE: 22

FROM: Dublin 

OCCUPATION: Commercial Real Estate Agent

HOW WOULD FAMILY AND FRIENDS DESCRIBE YOU? Someone who is fun and a loving character. They know I have so much love to give. 

I’m always smiling, I’m always happy, I’m always laughing. You’ll always see me with a smile on my face.

NAME: Mehdi Edno

AGE: 26

FROM: Bordeaux/London

OCCUPATION: Communications Manager/Model 

ARE YOU READY TO FIND THE ONE? Yes. I’ve been busy for the last few years with work, and doing my Masters degree but now I’m done with the busy schedule, and ready to find love. 

THREE MOST IMPORTANT THINGS TO HAVE IN A PARTNER?  Looks are important but they aren’t everything, a good sense of humour and someone who is outgoing and up for an adventure is what I’m looking for.

NAME: Ella Thomas

AGE: 23

FROM: Glasgow 

OCCUPATION: Model 

WHAT’S YOUR CLAIM TO FAME? I’ve been in a Headie One and Burna Burna Boy music video and I was once an extra in World War Z. I was 12 years old when I filmed it and got to meet Brad Pitt which was cool.

WHY SHOULD SOMEBODY DATE YOU? I’m the whole package, I know what I want in life and I’ve got a big heart. 

NAME: Mitchel Taylor

AGE: 26

FROM: Sheffield 

OCCUPATION: Gas engineer 

WHY SHOULD SOMEBODY DATE YOU? I thrive on being a gentleman. I’ll shower you with flowers, I’ll take you on dates, I’ll fill your bedside drawer with your favourite sweets and chocolate. I’ve been single, I’ve had my fun and now I want to settle down. 

WHY ARE YOU SINGLE? I’m just really picky. I’ve got to find the girl that I want to marry and have kids with. I’m nearly 27, I don’t want to play the field anymore, I want to find the one. 

NAME: Jess Harding

AGE: 22

FROM: London

OCCUPATION: Aesthetics Practitioner

WHY ARE YOU SINGLE? Because every boy is giving me the ick at the moment. I feel like it’s fate because I’m saving myself for Mr Right in the Villa!

WHAT GIVES YOU THE ICK? When a guy stunts for money, that’s an ick. Showing off all their designer clothes because most of the time they’re probably fake anyway! Another one is when a boy runs for the train and the train goes without him. Lunch Boxes also – just go to Tesco and get a meal deal! 

NAME: Zachariah Noble

AGE: 25

FROM: South East London

OCCUPATION: Personal trainer and basketball player

WHAT WILL YOU BRING TO THE VILLA? I’m a very chilled out guy and I’m completely myself 100% of the time. I’m quite straightforward and never struggle making friends, I like to look after people.

WHAT GIVES YOU THE ICK? I’ve got two and they’re both really stupid; Bad handwriting – I’ve got terrible handwriting so they’d need to have better handwriting than me and twerking, I really don’t like twerking! 

NAME: Whitney Adebayo

AGE: 25

FROM: London

OCCUPATION: Entrepreneur

WHAT WILL YOU BRING TO THE VILLA? Good vibes, I can be really silly and funny but I can also get deep. It depends on the person and the situation but I am a very adaptable person, I know how to read the room.

DO YOU FALL IN LOVE QUICKLY? Real love, no. I can fall in lust but I don’t fall in love quickly. My big thing is trust, I’ve got to trust you fully before I can give you my heart. I won’t give you my heart for free, you’ve got to earn it.

NAME: Sammy Root

AGE: 22

FROM: Kent

OCCUPATION: Project Manager

WHAT WILL YOU BRING TO THE VILLA? I’ll be the energy in the villa, lots of guys have pretty faces and nice bodies, which I have too, but I’ve also got the bubbly personality, I’m a bit of a firework

HOW WOULD FRIENDS/FAMILY DESCRIBE YOU? Funny, bubbly and good to be around. I’m a bit cheeky too.’

NAME: Leah Taylor

AGE: 27

FROM: Manchester

OCCUPATION: Business Owner (Social Media Marketing)

DO YOU FALL IN LOVE QUICKLY? This is difficult because I would have said that I was a slow-burner, but I think that’s because I’ve been more closed off in the past. In all honesty, I’m such a hopeless romantic and now because I know what I want, I can’t wait to be in love again.

DO YOU HAVE ANY CLAIMS TO FAME?  When I was a dancer, I actually danced at the EMAs and danced for Rita Ora and Camila Cabello. Maura Higgins is one of my best friends and we watched her best bits together one night and couldn’t stop laughing, she’s hilarious.

———————————————————————————————————

NAME: Scott Van Der Sluis

AGE: 22

FROM: Connah’s Quay, north Wales

OCCUPATION: Footballer 

WHAT DO YOU THINK YOU’LL BRING TO THE VILLA? Energy. I’ll bring a bit of banter, be cheeky, and I’m a flirt! very, very strong personality so if I see anything I don’t agree with, there’ll definitely be fireworks!

WHAT GIVES YOU THE ‘ICK? Someone who gets too clingy too quickly. I don’t like too many calls and too many texts. I’m not a fan of someone wearing Nike Air Force 1 trainers with a dress on a night out either or waking up with someone and seeing patchy fake tan in the morning. 

NAME: Mal Nicol

AGE: 25

FROM: Edinburgh, lives in London

OCCUPATION: Picture researcher

WHAT KIND OF BOMBSHELL ARE YOU GOING TO BE? I don’t have a game plan and I have never been one to be smooth with flirting. I know I can’t flirt, I can’t dance and I can’t sing, but I can guarantee I’ll be able to laugh them into my bed.

WHY ARE YOU GOING ON LOVE ISLAND? Since I moved to London, having the balance of seeing friends, work and gym, it’s really difficult to date at the same time. It’s quite exhausting to date in the real world.

NAME: Montel McKenzie

AGE: 25,

FROM: East London

OCCUPATION: Job: Account Manager and semi-professional footballer

WHICH ISLANDERS HAVE YOU GOT YOUR EYE ON? My top three right now would be Catherine, Leah and Ella. Ella for me is generally my type, Catherine carries herself well and seems like a classy girl. Leah seems very chilled and that’s the kind of person I am.

WHAT MESSAGE WOULD YOU GIVE TO THE ISLANDERS? Watch your girls because the guy that gets all of the girls is coming into the Love Island Villa.

Sky Sports axe HALF of their football reporting team in brutal cost-cutting move… with long-serving Geoff Shreeves told to take a significant pay-cut if he wants to stay at the broadcaster

• Sky Sports set to axe half of their football reporting team in cost-cutting plan 
• The exercise could see the exit of long-term interviewer Geoff Shreeves 
• Shake-up could put Soccer Saturday’s future at risk after Jeff Stelling left  

By Matt Hughes For The Daily Mail

Published: 17:30 EDT, 16 June 2023 | Updated: 21:07 EDT, 16 June 2023

Today Show host Karl Stefanovic delivered a cheeky blow to outgoing Sunrise host David ‘Kochie’ Koch on Wednesday, after his shock resignation. 

Karl, 48, jokingly told guests at a lavish media event at Sydney‘s Crown this week: ‘To be honest, I’m glad he’s gone.’

Karl made the playful joke while paying tribute to the TV veteran, 67, whose last Sunrise show will be on Friday. 

A handful of TV stars including Karl, Kochie, Natalie Barr and Samantha Armytage were all in attendance at the Crown x Vivid Sydney event on Wednesday.

Kochie revealed he was leaving Sunrise last Monday after 21 years and will be replaced by former Olympic athlete Matt Shirvington, 44. 

According to Sky News, Karl credited Kochie for paving the way for him and many others in the TV industry.

‘He pulls up stumps at the end of this week and I just want to pay my respects to him on what a wonderful career it has been,’ Karl said. 

‘It has been an extraordinary one for 21 years. He’s got up with the bakers and the road workers; and he has crunched it out across the nation.

‘That can’t be underestimated the impact he has had. He’s changed the whole way that breakfast news and TV is done in this country, and has allowed someone like me, a loose unit, to come along and also do the same for however long I do it for.’

On Tuesday, Kochie revealed he had received a ‘wonderful’ message from his breakfast TV rival Karl after announcing he was leaving Sunrise.

‘Thank you to everyone who has been so lovely. Unbelievable messages,’ he said. 

‘A wonderful, classy, respectful one from Karl Stefanovic. It was so nice, really adored that one but so many great messages.’

Kochie also told Daily Mail Australia on Monday he received a text message from one from his longtime co-hosts Melissa Doyle.

‘I’ve just glanced, because I’ve got lots of messages, I saw one from Mel and I’m sure there will be a whole bunch of others in the list but I’ve been talking to lots of journos and doing interviews,’ he said.

Kochie stunned his colleagues on Monday when he announced his resignation from the hit breakfast show after 21 years.

Behind the scenes photos show his co-hosts Natalie Barr, Edwina Bartholomew and Mark Beretta overcome with emotion in between breaks in filming.

During his on air announcement, Natalie looked heartbroken when Kochie said he had spent more time with her over the past few years than with members of his own family.

He said he was leaving the hit show to focus on his own businesses and to enjoy more flexible work hours to spend time with his growing family.

Kochie joined Sunrise to present finance reports in 2002 and in October that year became Chris Reason’s replacement when the journalist was diagnosed with cancer.

Shirvington, 44, said he was feeling ‘mixed emotions’ about the new gig as he joined Barr and Koch on the couch for the announcement.

‘Just amazing. Daunted. So excited. Happy. Cannot tell you the honour and privilege this is, Kochie, particularly. A huge job. A huge job. And an exciting job,’ he said.

Both Kochie and Barr said they were thrilled with the choice.

‘What we do always is when you’re a member of the family, you stay a member of the family, don’t you. And you come through. And you’ve been fantastic filling in and every Friday, it’s been sensational. You are going to been sensational. You are going to be the perfect fit,’ Koch said.

‘I have loved every single minute of my time at Sunrise,’ Koch said on air about his resignation.

‘I’ve been privileged to experience so many adventures, to meet so many incredible people, and to cover so many moments of history in the making.’

Seven West Media Chairman, Kerry Stokes said: ‘I will personally miss David, as he is a thorough professional and a wonderful human being, particularly in the manner he has mentored so many Seven people.’

Seven West Media Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer James Warburton added in a statement: ‘All good things come to an end, and I admire and respect his decision to step away from Sunrise while he’s at the top of his game.’

Vladimir Putin is ready to use his brutal security services to ‘put a stop’ to his longtime crony Yevgeny Prigozhin, head of Wagner private army, says a new report.

The mercenary force chief appeared to brand the 70-year-old dictator a ‘complete a**hole’ and mock him as a ‘happy grandfather’ amid reports from the frontlines of a Russian retreat and Ukrainian gains around the besiged city of Bakhmut.

Prigozhin hinted later that his foul-mouthed onslaught was in fact aimed at Putin’s chief of the general army staff Valery Gerasimov, 67, who he blames for ammunition shortages at the front.

Another possible target was defence minister Sergei Shoigu, also 67, but many believe it was aimed squarely at Putin.

Independent news outlet Meduza reported its Kremlin sources saying Prigozhin has now crossed a ‘red line’ in his repeated attacks on Putin’s top brass and their failings to give his fighters ammunition to take Bakhmut.

‘If this continues, official security forces will certainly put a stop to it,’ said a source close to the Kremlin, reported Meduza.

It was unclear if this meant liquidation – a fate of multiple Putin foes – or arrest, possibly for treason, which could see the 61-year-old billionaire warlord jailed for up to 21 years.

The report says Moscow’s propaganda agencies have already received a ‘warning’ from the Putin administration that if Prigozhin continues criticising the Defence Ministry and reporting ‘failures on the front’, journalists should begin ‘portraying him as a traitor’.

Putin’s administration will turn on him if he ‘continues to break ranks’. The warlord has threatened to pull out of Bakhmut if his demands for ammunition are not met.

This is despite Prigozhin reportedly still having the ability ‘to enter into direct dialogue with the president’, his mentor.

But other sources say Putin no longer takes his calls.

The Wagner chief – whose mercenary forces operate not only in Ukraine but also Africa and Syria – is seen as being protected by close Putin cronies General Viktor Zolotov, head of the Russian national guard, and Tula governor Alexey Dyumin, formerly bodyguard to the dictator and tipped as a possible successor as president.

But it is unclear whether they can now save him after his latest tirade.

Meduza sources claimed Prigozhin’s profanity-laden diatribes may be the result of frustration that he failed in a personal promise to Putin to seize Bakhmut – Moscow’s primary target in its winter offensive and scene of the bloodiest ground combat in Europe since World War Two – by a certain date.

There has been speculation the deadline was May 9 – when Russia marked the annual Victory Day, commemorating the Soviet Union’s defeat of Nazi Germany.

‘Because of this personal promise, he’s throwing the regular troops under the bus and making provocative statements. It’s unconventional behaviour,’ one source told the outlet. 

It said ‘multiple’ Kremlin-linked sources said Prigozhin had crossed a ‘red line’ with latest outbursts.

Prigozhin has expressed exasperation at the numbers of Wagner fighters killed – now lying dead on the frontline, or in graveyards across Russia – due to poor ammunition supplies. The warlord claimed the recent Russian retreat saw 500 of his Wagner forces dead – adding to the estimated tens of thousands already killed in Bakhmut.

In a recent video, Prigozhin delivered a message to camera in front of several uniformed corpses that lay on the ground behind him, covered in blood.

A former convict, Prigozhin rose to riches by staging lavish Kremlin banquets for Putin – hence his nickname as the dictator’s ‘chef’.

He also runs a propaganda empire including news agencies and troll factories pumping out pro-Putin social media messages in Russia and around the globe.

And he is behind Wagner and several other private military companies in Russia.

But there are fears he has become too big a threat, eyeing the Russian presidency if Putin is toppled due to war failures or falls due to ill-health.

The main Russian push in Bakhmut has been by led by Wagner forces, mainly mercenaries, volunteers and convicts freed from jail to fight by Putin. 

In a desperate attempt to seize the city earlier in the conflict, Wagner employed ‘human wave’ tactics, crashing unit after unit against Ukraine’s defences. 

Estimates suggest as many as 40,000 Wagner fighters were killed.

Despite the massive push, Ukraine’s defenders have managed to cling on to parts of the city and stopped Russia from advancing any further west in the region. 

News of Prigozhin’s precarious position came after a Ukrainian unit said on Wednesday that it had routed a Russian brigade near the Bakhmut stronghold.

The incident underlined the task facing the Kremlin as it carries out what it calls a ‘very difficult’ military operation. 

The unit’s claim appeared to buttress the comments by Prigozhin, who on Tuesday said the Russian brigade had abandoned its positions in the city.

Colonel General Oleksandr Syrskyi, who heads Ukraine’s ground forces, said Russian units in some parts of Bakhmut had retreated by up to 1.2 miles as the result of counter attacks. He gave no details.

‘The special military operation continues. This is a very difficult operation, and, of course, certain goals have been achieved in a year,’ Tass new agency quoted Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov as telling a Bosnian Serb television channel.

‘We managed to beat up the Ukrainian military machine quite a bit,’ said Peskov, citing Russian missile strikes in Ukraine. ‘This work will continue’.

Peskov said he had no doubt that Bakhmut ‘will be captured and will be kept under control’. He also said the Russian campaign in eastern Ukraine was proceeding slowly because Russia ‘is not waging war’.

‘Waging war is a completely different matter – it means complete destruction of infrastucture, it means complete destruction of cities,’ he said. ‘We are not doing this. We are trying to preserve infrastructure and preserve human lives.’

Peskov’s comments did not address claims that Russia’s 72nd Separate Motor-rifle Brigade had abandoned positions on the southwestern outskirts of Bakhmut.

In a statement, Ukraine’s Third Separate Assault Brigade said: ‘It’s official. Prigozhin’s report about the flight of Russia’s 72nd Independent Motorized Rifle Brigade from near Bakhmut and the ‘500 corpses’ of Russians left behind is true.’

A Russian brigade is typically formed of several thousand troops.

‘Our army is fleeing. The 72nd Brigade pissed away three square km this morning, where I had lost around 500 men,’ Prigozhin said on Tuesday, complaining his troops were receiving only 10% of the shells they needed.

In a statement later on social media, Prigozhin said Wagner forces had advanced 170 metres (530 feet). Ukrainian troops were confined to an area of 2.25 sq. km. (just under a square mile) and were coming under pressure in western districts dotted with high-rise apartments.

Ukrainian military analyst Roman Svitan said the successes near Bakhmut amounted to the beginning of the counter-offensive.

‘We are the ones who launched the moves to advance,’ Svitan told Ukrainian NV Radio. ‘We can say that the offensive that we have been expecting for at least the past six months got underway about a week ago.’

Ukrainian Deputy Defence Minister Hanna Malyar wrote on Telegram that pro-Kyiv units had not lost a single position in Bakhmut on Wednesday.

Russian troops invaded Ukraine in what Moscow calls a special military operation and initially captured large amounts of territory, but Kyiv’s forces pushed back.

Western officials estimate more than 200,000 Russian soldiers have been killed or wounded since the war began on February 24, 2022.

In his evening video address, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy named the Third Brigade and noted its report ‘about the flight of Russia’s 72nd Independent Motorized Rifle Brigade from near Bakhmut’.

In Brussels, NATO’s top military official said the war would increasingly be a battle between large numbers of poorly trained Russian troops with outdated equipment and a smaller Ukrainian force with better Western weapons and training.

Admiral Rob Bauer, a Dutch officer who is chair of NATO’s military committee, noted Russia was deploying T-54 tanks – an old model designed in the years after World War Two.

In Washington, U.S. Attorney General Merrick Garland said he had authorised the first transfer of forfeited Russian assets for use in Ukraine.

MEMOIR

Don’t Think, Dear: On Loving And Leaving Ballet 

by Alice Robb (Oneworld £16.99, 304pp) 

Noel Coward warned Mrs Worthington not to put her daughter on the stage, and parents who read Alice Robb’s memoir might well whisk their little darlings away from pink tutus and pointe shoes altogether.

This riveting memoir-meets-critical-appraisal examines classical ballet, revealing it to be less career, more cult — and as psychologically and physically brutal as it is beautiful.

Like thousands of little girls, Alice Robb dreamed of being a ballerina. Unlike most of them, she almost made it. 

Aged nine — at her third attempt — she gained entry to the School of American Ballet (feeder to the prestigious New York City Ballet). But the dream unravelled with puberty: Robb grew taller, her hips wider and, aged 12, she was summarily expelled.

Nascent ballet mothers — a sub-section unto themselves — will wince at this evidence of ballet’s absolute ruthlessness. 

This, then, is no rose-tinted account. Ballet demands an innate masochistic streak, extreme discipline, and submission to the relentless pursuit of perfection. Its lessons take years to unlearn — even now that she is a successful journalist and author, there is still something of the ‘bunhead’ about Robb.

Robb interweaves her own experience with those of famous ballerinas, including the Cuban star Alicia Alonso, who put dancing ahead of a detached retina and, as a result performed for years while nearly blind, and the legendary Margot Fonteyn, who was so indoctrinated by balletic discipline, one colleague described her as ‘the most passive person I have ever known’.

Robb sees this reflected in the emotional legacy of her submissive ballet years, which — like Fonteyn — made her a sitting duck for the type of man who plays it mean.

More poignantly, she includes the stories of the girls in her class at the School of American Ballet. Tellingly, only one of them is still dancing. Quite frankly, after reading this unsparing account in which their stories are backed up with studies and statistics, you marvel that even one of them made it.

Ballet is pain. It involves contorting, or having your body wrenched into impossible positions, and pointe shoes are a longed-for agony.

When dancing en pointe, the force of balancing on one foot is equivalent to letting the full weight of a grand piano fall on a single toe.

Feet are regularly bloodied and broken. It is more Black Swan — the ballet psychodrama thriller that won Natalie Portman an Oscar — than Swan Lake.

Robb quotes Portman on making Black Swan (the actress endured 16-hour training days, a broken rib, starving herself to the point of emaciation on a diet of carrots and almonds): ‘I thought I literally was going to die.’

This, it transpires, is typical ballet fare. It’s an art form which invites children to examine their bodies for flaws, and tells teen girls to ‘lengthen’, an elegant euphemism for weight loss. 

Common daily diets include a single apple and four tablespoons of cottage cheese, or celery juice and laxatives. Robb dreamed of slicing her thighs to make them thinner.

One of her contemporaries wasn’t deemed sufficiently slender until she developed a digestive disorder that left her unable to eat.

The ideal dancer’s body is preternaturally thin, with a tiny head perched atop a short torso with no hips and unfeasibly long legs.

Such is the body dysmorphia this engenders that Robb finds herself critically assessing a room of fashion models and thinking none of them would pass muster in a ballet studio.

At times, it reads like madness, but ballet is an autocracy. A dancer’s body is not her own — and nor is her mind. It’s a world in which an aged male teacher wrapping his hands around a teenager’s waist is considered a privilege.

Towering over these submissive waifs looms the shadow of the genius choreographer George Balanchine, co-founder of the New York City Ballet. His diktat ‘Don’t think, dear. Just do’ helps give the book its title,

Not content with telling women how to dance, Balanchine controlled what they ate (he would rap a girl’s ribs and say that he ‘must see the bones’), chose their perfume and who they dated — which was often Balanchine himself, who was not averse to having sexual relationships with his students. Yet he remains revered.

One of his pupils, Carol Sumner, who is now in her 80s and still teaching according to his methods, laughs as she recalls his ‘grabby’ nature, adding cheerfully that he’d be in prison in today’s MeToo climate.

Balanchine stands as a useful signifier for the paradox at the heart of this book, as Robb’s feelings about ballet veer between ‘longing and regret and feminist disdain’.

It is, she freely acknowledges, an art form which, over the years, has harmed, infantilised and silenced women, and a pathological pursuit of perfection which is at times, quite literally, a theatre of cruelty.

Even so, nothing equals its beauty — or the joy of losing herself in the pursuit of one perfect pirouette.

On a summer’s night in July 2021, a group of gunmen stormed the home of Haiti’s president Jovenel Moïse and savagely beat him – before shooting him dead.

Haiti was already gripped by political unrest, but the assassination carried out by 28 foreign mercenaries marked the beginning of the country’s rapid descent into chaos, which today sees it overrun by gangs and gripped by horrific violence.

Just a month later on August 14, the Caribbean island was struck by a deadly 7.2 magnitude earthquake before tropical storm Grace barrelled through two days later.

Although Prime Minister Ariel Henry was named as Moïse’s unelected successor, he has been unable to establish any authority and ease the crisis.

Haiti is still reeling from the President’s assassination and the sucker-punch delivered by the natural disasters, and – as of February 2023 – has been left without any elected government officials, leading to Haiti being described as a failed state. 

Instead, hundreds of highly organised and extremely violent criminal groups have poured into the power vacuum left by the assassination that continues to go unpunished. Today, the gangs have a stranglehold over Haiti – carrying out brutal killings, gang rapes and kidnappings to control the population.

The United Nations says gangs have control of 80 percent of the country’s capital of Port-au-Prince, home to more than two million people. Others say it is 100 percent.

Murders, rapes and kidnappings have become commonplace, with UN Secretary General António Guterres saying violence in Haiti has reached levels similar to that of a country at war.

Meanwhile, Thursday saw the deaths of two local journalists confirmed.

The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) said in a statement that radio reporter Dumesky Kersaint died in a shooting in mid-April, while journalist Ricot Jean was found dead on Tuesday having been kidnapped on Monday.

His body was found the next day.

The UN’s special envoy for Haiti, María Isabel Salvador, said on Wednesday that in the first quarter of 2022, more than 690 criminal incidents that include killings, rapes, kidnappings and lynchings were reported. 

That number more than doubled to 1,647 in the same period this year, she said.

‘Gang violence is expanding at an alarming rate in areas previously considered relatively safe in Port-au-Prince and outside the capital,’ she told reporters, and called for the deployment of a foreign specialised force to be deployed to Haiti.

‘The Haitian people cannot wait. We need to act now,’ she said.

Vigilante killings 

With the government and the country’s small police force unable to get control of the situation, there are signs that Haitians are taking matters into their own hands, doling out violence of their own in the form of extreme vigilantism.

This violence came to a head this week. Armed with machetes, bottles, and rocks, residents in the hilly suburbs of Port-au-Prince fought back on Tuesday.

Scores of men in the Canape Vert neighbourhood of Port-au-Prince spent the night on roofs and patrolled entrances of their community – setting up makeshift checkpoints with big trucks spray-painted with the words: ‘Down with gangs.’

A day earlier, in a gruesome act of violence, an angry crowd dragged 13 suspected gangsters out of a police van and threw stones at their heads, covered them with tyres, poured gasoline over them – and burned them alive.

Six other suspected gang members in the nearby neighbourhood of Turgeau, who allegedly were shot by police, were also set on fire on Monday.

Pictures showed thick black smoke rising over the neighbourhoods as residents watching the grizzly scene covered their noses against the foul odour.

After the killings, Garry Desrosiers – spokesman for Haiti’s National Police (PNF), said he understands people’s anger and frustration over gang violence, but pleaded with people to ‘not take justice into your own hands’.

‘[The people have] been victimised. They’ve been suffering. The young women are being raped. Professionals are being kidnapped. That is not acceptable,’ he said.

Desrosiers said a limited number of police were on the scene when the killings happened, but that they couldn’t sustain the crowd, and the crowd reacted. 

He said anti-gang operations will continue to fight the criminal groups.

But local residents have become disillusioned after years of inaction from the national police, government and politicians – who in the past have used the gangs as a way to exert political control over the population.

Locals say they are determined to fight back against the gangs themselves – and are willing to go to war if that’s what it takes.

‘We are planning to fight and keep our neighbourhood clean of these savages,’ Jeff Ezequiel, a 37-year-old mechanic told reporters from the Associated Press. ‘The population is tired and frustrated.’

‘There’s nowhere to run,’ said Samuel, 25, who declined to give his last name out of fear of being killed by the gangs. ‘We have to stand and fight back.

‘If there has to be a war, I will be part of it, because authorities are not taking responsibility and are letting everyone die under their eyes.’ 

Crisis years in the making

So how did Haiti get to the point that its citizens feel duty-bound to take the fight to the gangs themselves? Haiti’s gang problems can be traced back even before Moïse’s assassination, to the turn of the 21st Century.

In 2004, the country endured a coup d’état – prompting UN intervention, and 2010 brought the earthquake that killed 250,000 people, as well as a cholera outbreak.

Then, in 2016, having never fully recovered from the quake, the island was struck by Hurricane Matthew which brought even more devastation.

With its economy in tatters, many young men began moving from hard-hit areas into cities such as Port-au-Prince in search of work to support their families.

Unable to find stable jobs, many were recruited into gangs which were steadily growing in influence and power. This began around 2018, according to the Global Initiative Against Transnational Organised Crime.

President Moïse was said to have benefited from this, including allegations that he allowed G-9 – now the country’s largest coalition of gangs – impunity in the capital, provided they targeted his political opponents.

This was demonstrated in a series of attacks between 2018 to 2020 on the capital’s impoverished neighbourhoods, which saw gangs carry out the rape and murder of hundreds of civilians without any form of police intervention.

Meanwhile, Moïse had been consolidating power in the years before his assassination – gutting democratic institutions and thus leaving any successor with no leverage to crack down on the growing violence in the wake of his death, or protect its people from the escalating atrocities.

Moïse was assassinated on July 7 2021, a killing officially blamed on Colombian mercenaries, but which many suspect was ordered by his rivals.

Questions over Prime Minister Ariel Henry’s friendship with one of the chief suspects – former justice official Joseph Felix Badio – remain unanswered. Several people have been arrested in connection with the killing.

The assassination was followed closely by the magnitude 7.2 earthquake on August 14, 2021, killing more than 2,000 people and damaging over 130,000 buildings.

Rescue efforts were then hindered by Hurricane Grace on August 16, which flooded regions and threatened mudslides in areas hit by the earthquake.

Though Henry was named as Moïse’s successor (he is now both President and Prime Minister), he has not established any kind of authority and has even been unable to reach his own office because armed groups control the area around it.

With trust in the government extremely low, there are now thought to be around 200 gangs operating in Haiti including almost 100 in the capital alone, controlling everything from drugs and arms smuggling, to airports, factories and power plants.

Port-au-Prince has become a patchwork of territories whose brutal leaders – largely free of political influence – are free to operate as they please, warring over territory and revenging on each-other in an ever-escalating spiral of violence.

This has plunged Haiti – already the Western Hemisphere’s poorest country – into a dire humanitarian crisis, with hunger soaring and disease spreading.

With no one willing or able to quell the gang’s influence, there is no end in sight.

Orgy of violence

While gangs in Haiti had been allowed to act with impunity before Moïse’s assassination, the violence in the capital in particular has increased hugely since – with the gangs using fear and coercion to rule over their territories.

Hundreds of been killed, and victims have told of being forced to listen to their loved ones being raped until they pay ransoms, which can reach up to $1million. 

In one ten-day orgy of violence in Port-au-Prince back in July, gangs waged open warfare against each other in Cité Soleil – one of the capital’s slums home to 250,000 – launching raids into rival territory where they shot civilians on sight.

Gangsters stormed into people’s homes and raped any woman they found, before retreating back into their own territory – only to return again the next day.

The worst violence occurred on a single road leading out of the slum’s Nan Brooklyn district, as about 20,000 people fled.

As citizens attempted to escape down the main road, they were shot in the streets. Several children were killed, with their parents not even afforded the dignity of being allowed to give them a proper burial. Bodies were instead burned.

Across the 10 days, around 300 people were killed and at least 50 women and girls were subjected to rapes – many of which happened in front of their young children.

It is understood that the fighting broke out when the G-9 coalition launched an attempt to kill Jean Pierre Gabriel – the leader of the rival G-Pep gang.

G-Pep are rumoured to have connections with national political opposition and a major business figure, and have carved out a territory for themselves in the coastal Cité Soleil neighbourhood where they have been warring with G-9 since 2020.

G-9 members used construction equipment allegedly stolen from the government to excavate a route to Gabriel’s hideout in an attempt to kill him. 

Over the course of the 10-day conflict, heavily armed men hunting for Gabriel and his allies waged a brutal campaign of terror.

One five-year-old girl was forced to watch as her father was executed before her mother was gang-raped by four men.

Separately, a 19-year-old woman and mother-of-two was kidnapped and held for three days by a group of men who repeatedly raped her.

November 2022 saw another attack by the G-9 gang, this time on the Source-Matelas neighbourhood. 

In an interview, a 16-year-old girl told MailOnline how she was gang raped by three men whose mob marched her father and brother from their home to be murdered.

The girl – named only as Anne for her safety – said the attack happened during a massacre in her shanty town of Source-Matelas, near Port-au-Prince, on November 28 when gangs of men raided houses and raped and murdered those hiding inside. 

The massacre in Source-Matelas was sparked by the public execution of a local man called Jephté who gang leaders accused of being a police informant.

A horrific image was circulated on social media to intimidate others showing the victim seconds before his death, bound hand and foot inside a truck tyre.

A petrol canister sat beside him.

Such attacks have continued into 2023. Between February 28 and March 5, the community of Bel-Air in the capital saw armed clashes between the G-9 gang and the Bel-Air gang in which 148 people were killed or went missing.

More violence in Cité Soleil earlier in April saw nearly 70 people killed.

Despite the horrific violence, the Government and the police have failed to step in, seemingly powerless to bring an end to the attacks – with officers unable or unwilling to enter such neighbourhoods which are wholly controlled by the gangs.

Jimmy ‘Barbecue’ Cherizier and ‘state-sanctioned’ gang attacks

However, the brutal actions of the gangs are also known to have had the government’s backing in the past.

A study by Harvard University‘s law school looked at three attacks from 2018 to 2020, all during Jovenel Moïse’s term as president.

Each attack saw gangs – with the support of state actors – enter impoverished neighbourhoods in the capital and unleash death on the population.

The report focuses on a 2018 attack in La Saline, a 2019 attack in Bel-Air, and a 2020 attack in Cité Soleil – the same slum as the 10-day attack in 2022.

All three attacks were led by a man named Jimmy ‘Barbecue’ Cherizier, a former police officer who – along with several other gang leaders – today heads up the G-9 alliance, landing him on a UN Security Council’s sanctions list. 

Despite the sanctions against him, he cultivates a ‘Robin Hood’ image on social media – describing himself as a community leader who gives out cash when people are in need, clears garbage from the streets and protects people from rival gangs.

However, he is also accused of orchestrating some of Haiti’s worst recent massacres.

Cherizier has denied any connection to massacres, telling the Associated Press in 2019 that his enemies have linked him to the killings out of revenge. 

He said he got the nickname Barbecue as a child because his mother was a street vendor who sold fried chicken, not because he is accused of setting people on fire.

‘I would never massacre people in the same social class as me,’ Cherizier declared. He told the AP he takes inspiration from late dictator Francois ‘Papa Doc’ Duvalier, who ruled Haiti with a bloody brutality as ‘president for life’ from 1957 to 1971.

‘I was born next door to La Saline. I live in the ghetto. I know what ghetto life is.’  

But Harvard’s study said all three amounted to crimes against humanity under international law, with 240 people being killed and 25 being raped in total. Hundreds of homes were also destroyed, displacing countless civilians.

Anti-government protests were common in each neighbourhood, the study says, with the gangsters from the G-9 coalition targeting them for this reason.

The 2018 attack in La Saline saw Cherizier and two other chiefs lead heavily armed gangs in several vehicles – including an armoured vehicle from the government’s Departmental Intervention Unit (BOID) – and carry out a 14-hour attack.

The gangsters moved through the neighbourhood, opening first with automatic weapons. The Harvard Study says that over the course of the 14-hours, 71 residents – including children and a ten-month-old child – were killed.

It said that some of the perpetrators even wore BOID uniforms and lured residents out of their homes by pretending to be part of an official police operation.

While many of the victims were found with bullet wounds, others were beheaded with machetes. At least eleven women were raped, including two gang-rapes.

Some corpses were removed from the scene of the attack to an unknown location. Others were thrown on to piles of garbage where pigs fed on them. Other bodies were dismembered and burned. 

At no point over the course of the 14-hour attack did police intervene to protect the residents of the neighbourhood, the report says, despite the Haitian National Police having several outposts within a mile of the impoverished community.

A second attack included in the report – on the Bel-Air neighbourhood in 2019 – saw the same gang led by Cherizier move in to quell anti-government protests.

When residents refused to remove barriers, 50 armed men were led into the neighbourhood on November 4 and carried out a similar attack to the first.

Residents were shot and homes were burned, killing 24 people. While BOID officers exchanged fire with gangsters at one point during the four-day attack, they did not give chase when they pulled back. No other intervention was recorded.

The third attack listed in the report once again saw Cherizier lead gang members into a neighbourhood – this time the Cité Soleil slum in 2020.

The slum is a historical stronghold of government opposition, with warring gangs controlling different areas within it, and is significant for politicians due to it being the site of large polling stations for its 250,000 inhabitants.

Violent gang fighting surged in the slum in 2020, in what the Harvard report said appeared to be a concerted effort to turn it into an area controlled by pro-government gangs.

This came as Cherizier convened a meeting of the 13 gang leaders – who would go on to form the G-9 alliance – to plan attacks on the neighbourhood.

The gangs assaulted multiple locations simultaneously, and five armoured vehicles blocked the Nan Brooklyn entrance to the deeply impoverished area of the city.

Survivors spoke of tear gas being fired indiscriminately, forcing residents to flee, before gunfire erupted from all directions.

Residents were shot, stabbed and hit with stones as they tried to escape. Some were beheaded, the Harvard report says, with bodies burned or thrown in a river.

In total, at least 145 people were killed and 98 homes were destroyed, while the G-9 was able to take control of more territory in the process.

Again, the report says there is no evidence of the PNF intervening.

The Harvard report outlines how the attacks amount to crimes against humanity, as they include murders and rapes of the civilian population, and points the finger at ‘several state actors’ who may be liable.

These include the national police and officials within the Moïse administration. 

‘There is a reasonable basis to conclude that state and non-state actors have committed crimes against humanity in Haiti during Jovenel Moïse’s presidency,’ the report states in its conclusion.

‘The brutal killings, rapes, and torture of civilians in La Saline, Bel-Air, and Cité Soleil appear to follow a widespread and systematic pattern that further state and organisational policies to control and repress communities at the forefront of government opposition.’

No charges were ever brought against the former president before his assassination.

Gang blockades fuel terminal

The government’s powerlessness was again demonstrated in September 2022 when the G-9 – opposed to President Henry – blocked the entrance to the vital Varreux fuel terminal, which supplies most of the oil products in Haiti.

Already gripped by price inflation that put food and fuel out of reach for many, and by protests that brought society to a breaking point, the blockade plunged the country into yet another, deeper crisis.

Haiti was left without gasoline and diesel, while businesses and hospitals were forced to shut their doors – just as a cholera epidemic broke out across the country after three years without a reported case.

The blockade also created widespread shortages of goods including drinking water. 

Gangsters dug trenches and littered shipping containers at the entrance to the terminal to protest an announcement by Henry that the government would cut fuel subsidies due to their high cost – sparking fury across Haiti.

The gang also demanded Henry’s resignation.

The crisis prompted Henry to call on the international community to help the Caribbean nation as its day-to-day activities were crippled.

A month into the crisis, the United Nations proposed that a ‘humanitarian corridor’ be established into Port-au-Prince to allow for deliveries of vital supplies to citizens.

The UN said at the time that the blockade on the fuel terminal ‘has led to the closure of health centres over the last weeks now, and caused the interruption of water treatment services,’ posing a problem to efforts to prevent cholera.

‘The crisis that Haiti is going through affects the population throughout the territory and the most vulnerable people are the first to suffer from the blockage.’

The blockade prompted the UN Security Council to unanimously adopt a resolution demanding an immediate end to violence and criminal activity in Haiti. 

The sanctions resolution named only a single Haitian: Cherizier.

The sanctions were the first authorised by the UN’s most powerful body since 2017 and the resolution’s approval by all 15 council nations, whose divisions have been exacerbated by Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, demonstrated a rare sign that council members can work together.

‘Cherizier and his G-9 gang confederation are actively blocking the free movement of fuel from the Varreux fuel terminal – the largest in Haiti,’ the resolution said.

‘His actions have directly contributed to the economic paralysis and humanitarian crisis in Haiti.’ It also said he ‘has planned, directed, or committed acts that constitute serious human rights abuses.’

The report also referenced the three attacks laid out in the Harvard report. 

While serving in the police, it said, Cherizier planned and participated in the November 2018 attack by an armed gang on the capital’s La Saline neighbourhood.

He also led armed groups ‘in coordinated, brutal attacks in Port-au-Prince neighbourhoods throughout 2018 and 2019’ and in a five-day attack in multiple neighbourhoods in the capital in 2020.

Civilians were killed and houses set on fire, the resolution said.

The fuel terminal finally reopened in November 2022 after police regained control. Gunfire was heard in the area as officers battled the gang members held up there – with neither the government or police saying if anyone was killed in the fighting.

Rumours circulated that the government had negotiated with the G-9 – something that officials in Haiti denied.

But after two months, the damage was done. The incident demonstrated to all in Haiti that the country’s powerful gangs have the power to put their boot on the country’s neck and bring it to a standstill – and plunge it deeper into crisis.

Kidnappings 

While Haiti’s gangs use rape and murder as a way to intimidate the population, one of the most prevalent crimes has become kidnapping.

Reported kidnappings soared to more than 1,200 last year, double what was reported the previous year, according to the UN – although the true figure is believed to be even higher, with many going unreported.

Kidnappings are said to be the speciality of the G-Pep gang, which is understood to have recently allied with another by the name of 400 Mawozo – Haiti’s largest stand-alone gang which reportedly has a waiting list to join.

400 Mawozo and its allies were thought to be responsible for 80 percent of abductions that took place between June 2021 to September 2021 alone.

The FBI’s Miami office says it has seen a 300 percent increase in kidnappings for the first three months of 2023 when compared to the same period last year.

Gangsters target morning rush hour as peak kidnapping time, snatching people off the streets before demanding ransom, according to the BBC.

Gedeon Jean, of Haiti’s Centre for Analysis and Research in Human Rights, said that most victims are returned alive if the ransom is paid – but are brutally treated.

She said: ‘Men are beaten and burned with materials like melted plastic. Women and girls are subject to gang rape. 

‘This situation spurs relatives to find money to pay ransom. Sometimes kidnappers call the relatives so they can hear the rape being carried out on the phone.’

In one case in 2021, reported by The Guardian, a man named Joseph was driving through Haiti’s capital when two cars suddenly skidded to a halt – one behind him and one in front of him – boxing him in.

He told the newspaper that six men with flak jackets jumped out of the vehicles pointing rifles at him, before they forced him from his car, bound and blindfolded him, and took him to a safehouse.

Under duress, he said the kidnappers forced his phone code from him and contacted his brother, setting a $1.1million ransom for his release.

Eventually, his friends and family were able to pay $15,000, and he was released from captivity. ‘They set the price so high that you are scared, so that you will pay whatever you can,’ Joseph told the newspaper.

The issue of kidnapping made global headlines that same year, when 17 foreign missionaries – 16 Americans and one Canadian – were kidnapped from a bus. Five children were also taken by the armed gang – members of 400 Mawozo.

The kidnapping sparked anger in Haiti and abroad, prompting even the FBI to get involved. The missionaries were all eventually released, but it remains unclear whether any ransom had been paid to the kidnappers.

Speaking at the time, Joseph told The Guardian: ‘There’s obviously lots of coverage because they are American, but Haitians are getting kidnapped every day. Sometimes it makes the news, but sometimes nobody cares.’

Collapsed democracy

At the start of this year – on January 10, the terms of Haiti’s last democratically elected politicians expired overnight.

Only ten remaining senators had been symbolically representing the nation’s 11 million people in recent years, because the country had failed to hold legislative elections since October 2019.

The end of their terms left Haiti without a single lawmaker in its House or Senate, and without any officially elected lawmakers in government.

The alarming development solidified what some call Henry’s de facto dictatorship, his administration nominally in charge of the country wracked by gang violence.

The Parliament building in downtown Port-au-Prince has sat deserted, with only security guards at the gate. Similar scenes have been evident outside Haiti’s non-functioning Supreme Court and electoral commission. 

‘It’s a very grim situation,’ Alex Dupuy, a Haitian-born sociologist at Wesleyan University, said at the time. He described the democratic crisis as ‘one of the worst […] that Haiti has had since the Duvalier dictatorship.’

The bloody regime of Jean-Claude ‘Baby Doc’ Duvalier, who fled the country in 1986, marked the last time Haiti lacked elected officials.

Henry has promised to hold elections in 2023, saying on January 1 that the Supreme Court would be restored and a provisional electoral council tasked with setting a reasonable date for elections.

In February, he formally appointed the transition council charged with ensuring that the long-awaited elections – that were meant to be held in 2021 – go forward. ‘It is the beginning of the end of the dysfunction of our democratic institutions,’ Henry  said. 

However, many doubt the creation of the council will help the government hold elections this year, as gangs continue to fight and kill.

The ‘High Transition Council’s’ three members are Calixte Fleuridor with Haiti’s Protestant Federation, who will represent civil society; Mirlande Manigat, a law professor and former first lady and presidential candidate who will represent political parties; and Laurent Saint-Cyr, president of the Haitian Chamber of Commerce, who will represent the private sector.

The council also will be responsible for working with government officials to reform Haiti’s constitution, implement economic reforms and reduce gang violence.

But Henry stressed that elections can’t be held until Haiti becomes safer: ‘It would not be acceptable for the state to ask politicians to campaign if the state cannot guarantee their security,’ he said.

With the brutal violence continuing, when this will be is anyone’s guess. 

What next? 

This week, the UN’s special envoy to Haiti urged the immediate deployment of a specialised international force to counter the escalating gang violence, and to develop the Caribbean nation’s understaffed and ill-equipped police force.

However, the United States and Canada again showed no interest in leading a force –  and neither did any member of the UN Security Council.

Maria Isabel Salvador, who took over the UN job this month, warned that delays could lead to a spillover of insecurity in the Caribbean and Latin America. 

She cited police and UN figures to illustrate ‘the shocking increase in criminality in Haiti’ which, she said, comprise of homicides, rapes, kidnappings and lynchings.

Salvador stressed that without restoring a minimum level of security, it is impossible to move forward toward the elections Henry is supposedly pushing for.

She told reporters she was disappointed that no country has offered to lead a force since UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres issued an urgent appeal last October for international help at the request of Henry and the country’s Council of Ministers.

At the council meeting, neither the US – which has been criticised for previous interventions in Haiti, nor Canada – which the U.S. tried to convince to head the force, showed interest in taking the lead. 

The international community has instead opted to impose sanctions and send military equipment and other resources – interventions which many say are only making the dire situation in the country worse.

Salvador, a former Ecuadorian government official, told the council ‘we need to find innovative ways to define the force to support the Haitian National Police.’

Expanding on this idea to reporters later, the UN envoy said the international force, comprising police personnel, should help Haitian officers separate gangs and little by little restore security in the country.

She said she would like to see countries in Latin America and the Caribbean get more involved and lead the force, noting that some have past experience.

The spillover from the escalating violence is already having an impact in the neighbouring Dominican Republic and the region including Colombia, Ecuador and Peru where Haitians fleeing the country have arrived, she said, adding that increasing gang violence will worsen the impact.

‘Regional crises require regional reactions and actions,’ she stressed. Salvador lamented that this takes time, ‘and the Haitian people cannot wait.’