US will contribute $300 million to Haiti’s multinational security mission

The United States will contribute $300 million to the Kenyan-led multinational security mission to Haiti, Secretary of State Antony Blinken said Monday, as the situation on the ground continues to deteriorate.
It remains unclear when the security mission will be deployed. Kenya’s Interior Minister Kithure Kindiki said earlier Monday that Kenyan troops are currently in the “pre-deployment” stage.

US, Germany and EU embassies begin evacuating staff as violence spirals in gang-plagued Haiti

The United States and other diplomatic missions have begun evacuating personnel from Haiti, as gang violence in the Caribbean nation’s capital Port-au-Prince continues to spiral.
One evacuation operation carrying staffers from the German and European missions was forced to turn down requests to help evacuate others on Sunday
The German and European Union missions in Port-au-Prince have also evacuated diplomatic staff, including their ambassadors, according to two sources with knowledge of the situation.

Police in Brazil are investigating former President Jair Bolsonaro over allegations he harassed a humpback whale.
Bolsonaro said Wednesday that he had admitted to the Federal Police that he had approached a whale while riding a watercraft off the north coast of Sao Paulo state last June. But he said he had denied bothering the animal.
Police opened the investigation into the encounter after video footage emerged on social media showed a watercraft – with its engine still running – come within about 15 meters (50 feet) of a humpback whale. Investigators suspect that Bolsonaro was riding the vehicle at the time.

French President Emmanuel Macron, who criticized Brazil's previous government for failing to protect the rainforest, will arrive on Tuesday in the Amazon at the start of a three-day visit to the South American country.
Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva will meet Macron in Belem, near the mouth of the Amazon River, where the two will visit conservation parks with sustainable development projects and meet with Indigenous leaders.
Lula and Macron will discuss a common course to fight both climate change and poverty as Brazil prepares to host the G20 summit in Rio de Janeiro in November and United Nations climate talks in Belem next year, both of which the French president will attend, the Elysée said in a briefing.

The U.S. and British governments on Monday announced sanctions against a company and two people linked to the Chinese government over a string of malicious cyberactivity targeting the U.K.’s election watchdog and lawmakers in both countries.
Officials said those sanctioned are responsible for a hack that may have gained access to information on tens of millions of U.K. voters held by the Electoral Commission, as well as for cyberespionage targeting lawmakers who have been outspoken about the China threat.
Zhao, Ni and five other Chinese nationals were hit with federal charges Monday. An indictment brought by federal prosecutors in Brooklyn alleges that the seven men were Chinese intelligence officers who engaged in a yearslong campaign targeting top White House officials, U.S. senators and the spouses of high-ranking members of the Justice Department, among others.

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