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BBC HomepageSkip to contentAccessibility HelpYour accountLiveNotificationsHomeNewsSportWeatheriPlayerSoundsBitesizeMore menuMore menuSearch BBCHomeNewsSportWeatheriPlayerSoundsBitesizeCBBCCBeebiesFoodClose menuBBC NewsMenuHomeIsrael-Gaza warCost of LivingWar in UkraineClimateUKWorldBusinessPoliticsCultureMoreTechScienceHealthFamily & EducationIn PicturesNewsbeatBBC VerifyDisabilityWorldAfricaAsiaAustraliaEuropeLatin AmericaMiddle EastUS & CanadaHaiti: US to boost funding for foreign security force as violence grips countryPublished28 minutes agoShareclose panelShare pageCopy linkAbout sharingImage source, ReutersImage caption, A coalition of gangs in Haiti have united in an attack against the stateBy Will Grant, Central America correspondent & James GregoryBBC News The US says it will contribute a further $100m (£78m) to an international security force in Haiti as violence grips the country.US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said nations were “coming together in a positive direction” over the crisis following emergency talks on Monday.Plans for a speedy political transition were also discussed in Jamaica.Heavily armed gangs are demanding the resignation of Haiti’s unelected Prime Minister, Ariel Henry. The proposed US contribution to the security force now stands at $300m following Mr Blinken’s announcement, with a further $33m allocated for humanitarian aid. The UN-backed force is expected to be led by Kenya after earlier domestic legal challenges appear to have been overcome.Mr Henry was on a visit to Kenya to sign a deal on the deployment of the force when the latest outbreak of violence began earlier this month. He is currently stranded in Puerto Rico after sustained attacks on Haiti’s international airport prevented him from returning.Haiti has since then descended into further anarchy, leading to a growing sense of urgency in the Caribbean. How gangs came to dominate HaitiWhere aid delivery depends on talking to 300 gangsHaiti spirals to collapse as gangs tighten grip Speaking after talks with Caribbean leaders in Kingston on Monday, Mr Blinken said Haiti was facing a “critical moment” and that he hoped progress would be made. Guyana’s President Irfaan Ali, the head of the Caricom group of Caribbean countries, said he was “very confident that we have found commonality, and we have found a common path, through which we can support a Haitian-led solution and Haitian-owned solution”.The Caribbean Community is expected to urge Mr Henry’s resignation as the first step towards a transitional administration, in the hopes of paving the way to the first elections in the country since 2016.The White House, which initially backed Mr Henry, is now likely to agree. But even if the prime minister does step down, Haiti faces huge challenges. The UN World Food Programme warned that almost 1.5m people in the Haitian capital Port-au-Prince are facing famine in the country’s biggest humanitarian crisis since the 2010 earthquake, which claimed the lives of 200,000 people.Image source, ReutersImage caption, Mr Blinken flew out to Jamaica for a hastily-convened meetingEl Salvador’s President Nayib Bukele has claimed he can “fix” the crisis. Without providing details, he said any plan had to be accompanied with a UN resolution and Haitian consent. Mr Bukele is popular at home and across Latin America for his crackdown on gangs, though rights activists have raised the alarm over arbitrary arrests and inhumane prison conditions.El Salvador’s Foreign Minister Alexandra Hill Tinoco told BBC Radio 4’s The World Tonight programme: “Haiti deserves to live in conditions of peace, security and prosperity. We can deeply relate to Haiti because we were facing a similar situation in 2019. “We believe there’s not a common recipe that will serve all, yet our experience I believe is an extremely valuable one and can be adapted to Haiti’s needs.”Mr Henry was sworn in as the successor to President Jovenel Moïse in July 2021 following his assassination.Haiti: The basicsThe Caribbean country shares a border with the Dominican Republic and has an estimated population of 11.5 millionIt has a land area of 27,800 sq km, which is slightly smaller than Belgium and about the same size as the US state of MarylandChronic instability, dictatorships and natural disasters in recent decades have left Haiti the poorest nation in the Americas An earthquake in 2010 killed more than 200,000 people and caused extensive damage to infrastructure and the economyA UN peacekeeping force was put in place in 2004 to help stabilise the country and only withdrew in 2017In July 2021, President Jovenel Moïse was assassinated by unidentified gunmen in Port-au-Prince. Amid political stalemate, the country continues to be wracked by unrest and gang violenceRelated TopicsHaitiAntony BlinkenPort-au-PrinceTop StoriesUK must build new gas power plants or risk blackouts, minister warnsPublished2 hours agoWorkplace mental health service firm faces investigationPublished1 hour agoTory donor accused of racist Diane Abbott remarksPublished4 hours agoFeaturesKate’s photo apology and Tory donor’s Abbott remarksOn Russia’s Arctic border, Nato’s new members prep for warIs pressure on Kate after photo chaos unfair?Seven of the best moments from the OscarsBarbie, Oppenheimer & a wardrobe mishap? The Oscars in 60 seconds. VideoBarbie, Oppenheimer & a wardrobe mishap? 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[ad_1] Armed gangs in Haiti have united to demand the resignation of unelected Prime Minister Ariel Henry.
![BBC HomepageSkip to contentAccessibility HelpYour accountLiveNotificationsHomeNewsSportWeatheriPlayerSoundsBitesizeMore menuMore menuSearch BBCHomeNewsSportWeatheriPlayerSoundsBitesizeCBBCCBeebiesFoodClose menuBBC NewsMenuHomeIsrael-Gaza warCost of LivingWar in UkraineClimateUKWorldBusinessPoliticsCultureMoreTechScienceHealthFamily & EducationIn PicturesNewsbeatBBC VerifyDisabilityWorldAfricaAsiaAustraliaEuropeLatin AmericaMiddle EastUS & CanadaTucker Carlson interview: Fact-checking Putin’s ‘nonsense’ historyPublished1 hour agoShareclose panelShare pageCopy linkAbout sharingImage source, ReutersImage caption, Mr Putin began the interview by claiming that that 862 was the year of the “establishment of the Russian state”By Ido VockBBC NewsUS talk show host Tucker Carlson’s interview with Russian President Vladimir Putin began with a rambling half-hour lecture on the history of Russia and Ukraine. Mr Carlson, frequently appearing bemused, listened as Mr Putin expounded at length about the origins of Russian statehood in the ninth century, Ukraine as an artificial state and Polish collaboration with Hitler. It is familiar ground for Mr Putin, who infamously penned a 5000-word essay entitled “On the Historical Unity of Russians and Ukrainians” in 2021, which foreshadowed the intellectual justification the Kremlin offered for its invasion of Ukraine less than a year later. To historians, the litany of claims made by Mr Putin are nonsense – representing nothing more than a selective abuse of history to justify the ongoing war in Ukraine.Regardless of the historical realities, none of Putin’s assertions would form a legal justification for his invasion. A state-centred narrativeMr Putin began the interview by claiming that that 862 was the year of the “establishment of the Russian state”. This was the year that Rurik, a Scandinavian prince, was invited to rule over the city of Novgorod, the capital of the Rus – the people who would eventually develop into today’s Russians. Mr Putin contrasts what he claims is the unbroken tradition of Russian statehood dating back to the ninth century with the modern “invention” of Ukraine – a country he insists was “created” as late as the twentieth century. Image source, Getty ImagesImage caption, An engraving of Prince Rurik in 862But Sergey Radchenko, a historian at the Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies, says the president’s claim is “a complete falsehood”. “Vladimir Putin is trying to construct a narrative backwards, saying Russia as a state began its development in the ninth century. You could equally say that Ukraine as a state began its development in the ninth century, exactly with the same kind of evidence and documents.”He’s trying to use certain historical facts to construct a state-centred narrative that would favour Russia as opposed to any alternative agglomerations.”Putin says deal can be reached to free US reporter Putin takes charge as Carlson gives free rein to KremlinThe former Fox star interviewing Vladimir PutinRonald Suny, a professor at the University of Michigan, says the Rus was made up of “a bunch of bandits, who burned their own capital repeatedly”. He adds that Mr Putin is repeating an “established mythology made up at certain points in the past by Muscovite tsars who trace their lineage back to Rurik”.”This mythology was crystallised in Moscow to justify their imperial hold over Ukraine.”A ‘special ethnic group’Mr Putin told Tucker Carlson that by the seventeenth century, when Poland came to rule over parts of present-day Ukraine, they introduced the idea that the population of those areas “was not exactly Russians. Because they lived on the fringe, they were Ukrainians.””Originally the word Ukrainian meant that the person was living on the outskirts of the state, along the fringes.” But Anita Prazmowska, a professor emerita at the LSE, refutes this. She says while a national consciousness emerged later among Ukrainians than other central European nations, there were Ukrainians during that period. “[Vladimir Putin] is using a twentieth-century concept of the state based on the protection of a defined nation, as something that goes back. It doesn’t.”Mr Suny says that while it may be true that Russians, Ukrainians and Belarusians “came from the same stock … through time, they developed into different peoples.” ‘New Russia’Mr Putin claims that areas in the south and east of Ukraine “had no historical connection with Ukraine whatsoever”. Conquered from the Ottoman Empire by the Russian Empress Catherine the Great in the seventeenth century, the Russian president says that means these lands are in fact rightfully Russian. Mr Putin later refers to them using the seventeenth-century term “Novorossiya” – New Russia. Mr Suny points out that the inhabitants of these lands when they were conquered by Russia were neither Russian nor Ukrainian, but Ottoman, Tatar or Cossacks – Slavic peasants who had fled to the frontiers. Image source, Getty ImagesImage caption, Catherine the Great conquered parts of present-day UkraineBut claiming that these territories are in reality rightfully Russian serves Mr Putin’s interests, as they are precisely the territories that Russia is attempting to conquer from Ukraine during the now decade-long conflict with its neighbour. So-called Novorossiya includes Crimea – illegally annexed from Ukraine in 2014. New Russia also covers areas around Kherson, Mariupol and Bakhmut, which Mr Putin declared part of Russia in 2022.An ‘artificial state’Mr Putin went on to claim that “Ukraine is an artificial state that was shaped at [Joseph] Stalin’s will,” arguing that Ukraine was created by the Soviet leadership in the 1920s and received lands that it had no historical claim to. In a sense, he is correct, says Prof Radchenko. The Soviet leadership drew up the borders of Soviet republics “almost like the Western colonial powers drew up borders in Africa – kind of randomly.”But that does not mean that Ukrainians did not exist.”More broadly, Mr Radchenko denies Mr Putin’s claims that Ukraine is not a real country because it was formed in its modern form in the twentieth century. “Any country is a fake country, in the sense that countries are created as a result of a historical process.”Russia was created as a result of decisions taken by the Russian tsars, such as the colonisation of Siberia, which came at the considerable expense of the local population.”If Ukraine is a fake country, then so is Russia.” ‘Collaborating with Hitler’Perhaps Mr Putin’s most inflammatory claim was regarding Poland. Mr Putin claimed that Poland – which was invaded by Nazi Germany and the Soviet Union in 1939 – “collaborated with Hitler”. The Russian president told his interviewer that by refusing to cede an area of Poland called the Danzig Corridor to Hitler, Poland “went too far, pushing Hitler to start World War Two by attacking them”. For Prof Prazmowska, President Putin’s interpretation of history is a flawed reading of the historical record. She says that while it is true that there were diplomatic contacts between Poland and the Nazis – the first treaty Hitler signed after coming to power was a non-aggression pact with Poland in 1934 – Mr Putin is conflating diplomatic outreach to a threatening neighbour with collaboration. “The accusation that the Poles were collaborating is nonsense,” says Mrs Prazmowska.”You can’t interpret these things as if this were collaboration with Nazi Germany, because it just so happened that the Soviet Union also signed treaties with Germany [at the same time].”In September 1939, Nazi Germany and the Soviet Union invaded Poland according to the terms of the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact signed between both states earlier that year. More on this storyPutin takes charge as Carlson gives free rein to KremlinPublished5 hours agoWhat do Putin and Carlson gain from Kremlin interview?Published15 hours agoTop StoriesLive. 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