Haiti on the Brink

Happy Tuesday! The Minneapolis Star Tribune reported this week that more than a dozen bald eagles were hospitalized at the University of Minnesota Raptor Center after they poisoned themselves by “eating carcasses of animals that were chemically euthanized and dumped at [a] landfill.” Nearly all of the birds are expected to recover.

There’s probably a metaphor for the United States in there somewhere, but it’s likely too depressing to contemplate.

Quick Hits: Today’s Top Stories

• Chinese officials announced Monday that the government will halt its use of a state-sponsored COVID-tracking app to surveil citizens’ movement amidst the pandemic, part of the Chinese Communist Party’s easing of its “zero-COVID” pandemic strategy following widespread protests. As Chinese society continues to open up, new infections are surging nationwide, with Chinese hospitals struggling to keep up with demand for medical supplies and services.
• Indian and Chinese soldiers reportedly got into a skirmish over the weekend along the Himalayan border separating the two countries, with India’s Ministry of Defense saying troops on both sides of the clash sustained minor injuries. The confrontation represents the first such border dispute between the two countries—which have squabbled over the “Line of Actual Control” for decades—since the summer of 2020.
• The Iranian government publicly executed 23-year-old Majid Rahnavard this week for his involvement in anti-regime demonstrations that have rocked the country since September. The execution—by hanging—was the second such killing of a protest leader by the Iranian regime in recent weeks. 
• The attorney general of the Bahamas announced yesterday that former FTX CEO Sam Bankman-Fried was arrested by Bahamian police Monday evening after the United States filed criminal charges against the supposed cryptocurrency guru and made clear it was likely to request SBF’s extradition. According to the Wall Street Journal, SBF’s arrest was predicated on a sealed indictment filed in the Southern District of New York charging Bankman-Fried with “wire fraud, wire fraud conspiracy, securities fraud, securities fraud conspiracy, and money laundering.” He was previously scheduled to testify before Congress on FTX’s collapse.

Haiti on the Brink

Fifteen-year-old Lelianne was out with her mom getting something to eat when she was shot in the stomach, apparently the victim of a stray bullet from another gun battle on the streets of Haiti.

“While we were ordering I felt something,” the teen told the BBC, doing a crossword to pass the time in the hospital. “That’s when I fell and screamed in agony. I didn’t expect to survive.”