The World That Was

Adrian Olivier,

Sunday 3 March – Sunday 10 March:

On Sunday, Haiti’s government declared a state of emergency after thousands of inmates managed to escape from the country’s two largest prisons – one in the capital of Port-au-Prince and the other a short distance northeast of the capital in Croix des Bouquets – on Saturday. Finance Minister Patrick Boivert, who is serving as acting prime minister, said the capital has seen “increasingly violent criminal acts perpetrated by armed gangs,” including kidnappings and killings of citizens, violence against women and children and looting. A United Nations’ source said Sunday that around 3,500 prisoners are believed to have escaped Haiti’s National Penitentiary in Port-Au-Prince. There had been 3,687 prisoners at prison, according to the source. The Haitian Ministry of Communication said in a statement on Sunday that police confronted “heavily armed criminals seeking at any cost to free people from custody” and were “not able to stop the criminals from freeing a large number of prisoners.” The violence left several inmates and prison staff injured, it said. Earlier, in a post on X, one of Haiti’s police unions pleaded for all officers in the capital with access to cars and weapons to assist police battling to maintain control of the prison. It warned that if the attackers were successful, “we are done. No one will be spared in the capital because there will be 3,000 extra bandits,” according to the statement. 

On Monday, the Supreme Court unanimously declared that Donald Trump could not be removed from the ballot in Colorado. A 5-4 majority said no state could dump a federal candidate off any ballot. It is Congress, the court wrote, that can enforce the provision, not states. The opinion is a massive victory for Trump, removing one of the many legal threats to his 2024 campaign against President Joe Biden. The decision came one day before Colorado’s primary on Super Tuesday.Trump called the ruling a “win” for the country. 

On Monday, the militaries of South Korea and the U.S. began their computer-simulated command post training “Freedom Shield” and a variety of field exercises aimed at countering North Korea’s provocations. Freedom Shield exercises will last for 11 days until March 14 and involve twice the number of troops from both the U.S. and South Korea as last year’s exercises. 

On Super Tuesday, 15 states held their primaries. It was a good day for Donald Trump, who won 14 states. Nikki Haley won Vermont. Joe Biden won all 15 states.

On Wednesday, Republican presidential hopeful Nikki Haley threw in the towel and announced she was dropping out of the race. Media made much of the fact that Haley used the term “suspend,” which has led to speculation that she may unsuspend her campaign should anything happen to Donald Trump. 

On Wednesday, a Russian missile strike appeared to target Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, landing near his motorcade in the Black Sea port city of Odessa. Zelenskyy was meeting with Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis. Neither Zelensky nor members of the Greek delegation were harmed, despite the missile landing a few hundred metres away. 

On Wednesday, U.S. CENTCOM said the Houthis attacked the shipping vessel True Confidence with an anti-ship ballistic missile (ASBM) at 11:30 a.m. local time (0830 GMT). It added that this was the fifth ASBM fired by Houthis in the past two days. The Barbados-flagged True Confidence was struck about 50 nautical miles southwest of the Yemeni port of Aden, setting it ablaze and adrift, its Greek operator said. “The missile struck the vessel, and the multinational crew reports three fatalities, at least four injuries, of which three are in critical condition, and significant damage to the ship,” CENTCOM added.

On Wednesday night, President Biden gave his State of the Union address to the U.S. Congress. He urged Congress to unblock aid to Ukraine to help the country fend off Russia’s invasion, saying “My message to President Putin, who I’ve known for a long time, is simple: We will not walk away. We will not bow down. I will not bow down.” He also hit out at Trump for saying that he would tell Russia “to do whatever the hell they want” to a NATO country that does not spend enough on defence. “A former president actually said that, bowing down to a Russian leader,” Biden said. “My purpose tonight is to wake up the Congress and alert the American people that this is no ordinary moment,” Biden said, warning that “freedom and democracy are under attack both at home and overseas.” Biden also welcomed Sweden’s joining of NATO. 

On Friday, Donald Trump hosted Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán at his Mar-a-Lago estate in Florida. The former president and a small group of close advisers met with Orbán for a roughly one-hour-long “social meeting.” Trump’s campaign said he met with Orbán “to discuss a wide range of issues affecting Hungary and the United States, including the paramount importance of strong and secure borders to protect the sovereignty of each nation.” Afterwards, Trump heaped praise on Orbán, saying “There’s nobody that’s better, smarter or a better leader than Viktor Orbán. He’s fantastic”.” Trump added that the Prime Minister is “a noncontroversial figure because he said, ‘This is the way it’s going to be,’ and that’s the end of it, right? He’s the boss and … he’s a great leader, fantastic leader. In Europe and around the world, they respect him.”

On Saturday, U.S Navy ships and aircraft shot down 15 drones fired by Yemen’s Houthi rebels in the Red Sea area. Central Command (CENTCOM) said that the U.S.-led naval coalition was responding to a large-scale attack by “Iranian-backed Houthi terrorists” launched into the Red Sea and Gulf of Aden between 04:00 and 06:30 local (01:00-03:30 GMT). The Houthi’s military spokesperson, Yahya Saree, said on Saturday that the group had carried out two military operations, the first of which targeted the U.S. bulk carrier Propel Fortune in the Gulf of Aden. Saree claimed that the second operation involved 37 drones targeting U.S. Navy destroyers in the Red Sea and the Gulf of Aden. A French warship and fighter jets also shot down four Houthi drones that were advancing toward naval vessels belonging to the European Aspides mission in the region. “This defensive action directly contributed to the protection of the cargo ship True Confidence, under the Barbados flag, which was struck on March 6 and is being towed, as well as other commercial vessels transiting in the area,” a French army statement said.

On Saturday, Pope Francis courted controversy when he said that Ukraine should raise the “white flag” – an expression used to indicate surrender. On Saturday night, the Vatican spokesman, Matteo Bruni, immediately clarified that the pope meant “cease-fire and negotiation,” not surrender. On Sunday, Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba, responding to the pope’s comments, said on the social media platform X that Ukraine’s “flag is a yellow and blue one” – not white.