UN: Haiti gang clashes kill 78 in capital suburbs

May 15, 2026

Summary

U.N. officials said gang clashes in two Port-au-Prince suburbs killed at least 78 people and displaced about 5,300 since May 9.

Why this matters

The latest violence underscored Haiti’s worsening security crisis and the growing toll on civilians and basic services in the Port-au-Prince area. It also came as a new multinational force began deploying to support Haitian authorities.

Clashes between gangs in suburbs of Haiti’s capital left at least 78 people dead, including 10 bystanders, between May 9 and Thursday, according to the United Nations Integrated Office in Haiti (BINUH).

The violence displaced about 5,300 people, the U.N. Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs said, citing local humanitarian organizations. Several families remained trapped in affected neighborhoods, it said.

A hospital and a Doctors Without Borders facility suspended operations and evacuated staff. Before evacuating, Doctors Without Borders, also known as Medecins Sans Frontieres (MSF), said the hospital treated 40 gunshot victims in less than 12 hours.

Between March 5 and May 11, at least 305 people were killed and 277 wounded in Cite Soleil and Croix-des-Bouquets. Of those killed, 63 were residents, including 17 women and 13 children, while the others were gang members.

Haiti has faced worsening gang violence over the past two years.

A new multinational anti-gang force was being deployed to Haiti to replace the Multinational Mission to Support the Haitian Police. So far, only a contingent of 400 Chadian soldiers had arrived in Port-au-Prince.

The force announced Thursday that its commander, Mongolian Gen. Erdenebat Batsuuri, had arrived.

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President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said Russia had launched 1,567 drones since Wednesday morning.

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In Kharkiv, 28 people, including three children, were wounded, and civilian infrastructure was hit, regional Gov. Oleh Syniehubov said. Ukraine’s Energy Ministry said power supplies were disrupted in 11 regions. Officials also reported strikes on port infrastructure in the Odesa region and on railways.

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Foreign Minister Andrii Sybiha said the attack, during President Donald Trump’s visit to China, showed Russia wanted to continue the war despite Washington’s peace push.
Latin America

UN: Haiti gang clashes kill 78 in capital suburbs

The same two communes in the Port-au-Prince metropolitan area saw violence in March and April that displaced nearly 8,000 people, according to the United Nations.

Full story +

Clashes between gangs in suburbs of Haiti’s capital left at least 78 people dead, including 10 bystanders, between May 9 and Thursday, according to the United Nations Integrated Office in Haiti (BINUH).

The violence displaced about 5,300 people, the U.N. Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs said, citing local humanitarian organizations. Several families remained trapped in affected neighborhoods, it said.

A hospital and a Doctors Without Borders facility suspended operations and evacuated staff. Before evacuating, Doctors Without Borders, also known as Medecins Sans Frontieres (MSF), said the hospital treated 40 gunshot victims in less than 12 hours.

Between March 5 and May 11, at least 305 people were killed and 277 wounded in Cite Soleil and Croix-des-Bouquets. Of those killed, 63 were residents, including 17 women and 13 children, while the others were gang members.

Haiti has faced worsening gang violence over the past two years.

A new multinational anti-gang force was being deployed to Haiti to replace the Multinational Mission to Support the Haitian Police. So far, only a contingent of 400 Chadian soldiers had arrived in Port-au-Prince.

The force announced Thursday that its commander, Mongolian Gen. Erdenebat Batsuuri, had arrived.
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Scientists identified a new species of dinosaur in Thailand that researchers said was the largest known dinosaur from Southeast Asia.

The species, Nagatitan chaiyaphumensis, was described Thursday in the journal Scientific Reports. It belonged to the sauropods, a group known for long necks and tails, small heads, and four columnar legs.

Researchers estimated the herbivore measured about 27 meters, or 89 feet, and weighed about 27 tonnes, roughly as much as nine adult elephants. They said it likely lived in what is now Thailand between 100 million and 120 million years ago.

Its head and teeth were not among the fossils recovered, but researchers inferred its diet from other sauropods.

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Kathy Grillo, Verizon’s senior vice president for public policy and government affairs, said, “the additional spectrum will allow us to better serve our customers as we continue to bolster our already-robust network.”

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On Tuesday, the FCC approved EchoStar’s $40 billion sale of wireless spectrum to SpaceX and AT&T.

SpaceX is gaining access to exclusive-use spectrum for a Starlink device-to-device service and other offerings. The FCC said AT&T’s low-band spectrum will expand coverage across the United States, especially in rural and underserved areas.
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In an unsigned order, the justices granted requests from mifepristone manufacturers Danco Laboratories and GenBioPro to lift a lower court block on the rule while the case proceeds. Justices Samuel Alito and Clarence Thomas dissented.

The New Orleans-based 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals on May 1 had reinstated an earlier federal rule requiring an in-person clinician visit to receive mifepristone. The Supreme Court had temporarily paused that order on May 4 and May 11.

Mifepristone received FDA approval in 2000. Medication abortion, typically using mifepristone followed by misoprostol, accounts for about two-thirds of U.S. abortions and is used in the first 10 weeks of pregnancy.

Louisiana sued the FDA in 2025, arguing the 2023 rule eliminating the in-person dispensing requirement was unlawful and increased medication abortions despite the state’s near-total abortion ban. The state said the FDA ignored risks, including sepsis and hemorrhaging.

The Trump administration opposed Louisiana’s challenge, citing an ongoing FDA review of mifepristone safety regulations and arguing that Louisiana lacked legal standing.

The case returned abortion to the Supreme Court after its 2022 ruling in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization overturned Roe v. Wade. Since then, 13 states have enacted near-total abortion bans, and anti-abortion groups have increasingly challenged Mifepristone access.

In dissent, Alito wrote that mailing abortion pills from out-of-state providers had undermined enforcement efforts in states such as Louisiana. Thomas wrote that the federal Comstock Act bars mailing drugs intended for abortion.

“Louisiana’s efforts have been thwarted by certain medical providers, private organizations and states that abhor laws like Louisiana’s and seek to undermine their enforcement,” Alito wrote.

Thomas wrote that the drugmakers “are not entitled to a stay of an adverse court order based on lost profits from their criminal enterprise. They cannot, in any legally relevant sense, be irreparably harmed by a court order that makes it more difficult for them to commit crimes.”

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Tech & Artificial Intelligence

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Nine California jurors are deliberating in Elon Musk’s case against OpenAI co-founders Sam Altman and Greg Brockman, as well as Microsoft.

Jurors are weighing three claims: breach of charitable trust, unjust enrichment, and aiding and abetting breach of charitable trust. The case centers on whether Musk’s donations to OpenAI were subject to specific conditions requiring charitable use, and whether those donations were later used to benefit OpenAI’s for-profit arm and its investors.

Microsoft’s role is narrower. Jurors must decide whether the company knew Musk had specific conditions on his donations and whether it played a significant role in causing him harm.

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OpenAI’s lawyers responded that no witness identified specific restrictions on Musk’s donations, including Jared Birchall, Sam Teller, and Shivon Zilis. They said private fundraising was always understood to be necessary, and noted that Musk had proposed for-profit structures involving OpenAI, including one tied to Tesla.

OpenAI also cited testimony from a forensic accountant who said Musk’s donations were spent before Aug. 5, 2021. Its lawyers argued that Musk could have known years earlier about OpenAI’s structure through fundraising documents, public statements, and his own public criticism, and that Zilis voted to approve transactions at issue.

Microsoft witnesses testified that the company found no evidence of donation restrictions and never used any veto rights over OpenAI decisions.

OpenAI argued that Musk’s role ended in 2018, his last donations were made in 2020, and his lawsuit followed OpenAI’s rise after ChatGPT.