Latest news with #JakeJohnston
Scotsman
19-05-2025
- Sport
- Scotsman
Quality over quantity as 125th Dispatch Trophy set for exciting last-16 ties
Posse of Lothians champions set to be involved in second-round matches at the Braids Sign up to our daily newsletter Sign up Thank you for signing up! Did you know with a Digital Subscription to Edinburgh News, you can get unlimited access to the website including our premium content, as well as benefiting from fewer ads, loyalty rewards and much more. Learn More Sorry, there seem to be some issues. Please try again later. Submitting... It may have suffered in terms of quantity over the years, which is down to a combination of lots of the old teams no longer existing and some big clubs surprisingly not being able to raise a team. But there is absolutely no denying that the quality as far as the overall field is concerned has risen in that same time in the Edinburgh Evening News Dispatch Trophy. Advertisement Hide Ad Advertisement Hide Ad For example, take the 125th edition, which got underway in glorious conditions at the beautiful Braids on Saturday and continues when eight second-round matches are held on Tuesday night. Heriot's had Lothians champion Sam Hall, Fraser Smith, Elliot Innes and Scott Dickson in action on Saturday at the Braid Hills Golf Course | National World Heriot's have Sam Hall, the current Lothians champion, in their line up while Sean Marc, who landed that title in 2015, is representing Kilgour Wealth Management. Two-time Lothians champion Allyn Dick is also taking part, bidding to claim his eighth gold medal in a Duddingston side that is chasing a third straight trophy triumph. David Miller, yet another Lothians champion, played on Saturday for the holders and it's likely that Jamie Duguid, runaway winner of the Craigmillar Park Open last month, will be back in the Duddingston team for the last-16 stage. Advertisement Hide Ad Advertisement Hide Ad Some of the youngsters taking part have also helped up the ante in terms of quality and that, of course, is no disrespect whatsoever to the hundreds of players who have played in the historic tournament over the years. Archie Wyatt is representing Murrayfield after arriving home from the US at the end of the college season on Friday, as are Stephen Gallacher Foundation duo Jake Johnston and Callum Kenneally. Two of the players - Callum Kenneally and Jake Johnston - representing the Stephen Gallacher Foundation in the 125th Dispatch Trophy only arrived home from the US at the end of the college season on Friday | National World Add in the likes of Dispatch Trophy stalwarts Keith Reilly, Graham Robertson, Fraser Jarvis, Stewart More and John Cafferty among others and it really is a cracking field still in the trophy hunt. 'I love it up here and will keep returning as long as I possibly can,' admitted Jarvis, who made it to the final with Lothians & Borders Police in 2009 and is part of Newbattle team Donuts@the9th on this occasion. Advertisement Hide Ad Advertisement Hide Ad 'It's one of the best competitions you can play. It's competitive but friendly at the same time and, yes, we had our donuts on the ninth tee with our opponents on Saturday!' Hall and his Heriot's team-mates face Heriot's Quad on Tuesday night in a repeat of the 2023 semi-final. Heriot's lost to Duddingston in the final on that occasion before it was the same outcome in the semi-finals last year, when Heriot's had to make changes due to a clash with one of the top FP events in the UK. Scott Dickson wasn't buying into this being a case of them necessarily having unfinished business, but you get the feeling that will be driving Heriot's this week. Advertisement Hide Ad Advertisement Hide Ad It's brilliant to see both Kilgour Property Management and Kilgour Wealth involved in the second round after their weekend wins. 'We are not the wealth part of the company,' joked Gus Santana after joining forces with David Downing, John Shepherd and Mark Roberts for Kilgour Property. They now face Duddingston and spice will be added to that one by the fact that Santana, Downing and Shepherd are all members of the Capital club, with Roberts, who is a Tantallon man, being the odd one out. Tuesday's second-round ties 4.30pm Donuts@9th v Kilgour Wealth Management 4.40pm Hailes v Edinburgh Western 4.50pm Heriot's Quad v Heriot's 5.00pm BBT v Stephen Gallacher Foundation 5.10pm Silverknowes B v Edinburgh Academicals 5.20pm Harrison v Silverknowes 5.30pm Braids United v Murrayfield 5.40pm Duddingston v Kilgour Property
The Guardian
02-05-2025
- Politics
- The Guardian
US designates two powerful Haitian gangs as terrorist groups
The United States has designated a powerful Haitian gang alliance, whose members have taken control of almost all the capital city as a 'transnational terrorist group'. The criminal coalition known as Viv Ansanm (Live Together), and another faction, the Gran Grif gang, which in October took responsibility for a shocking massacre of at least 115 people in the agricultural town of Pont-Sondé, were both covered by the move on Friday. 'They are a direct threat to U.S. national security interests in our region,' the US secretary of state, Marco Rubio, said in a statement, adding that providing material support or resources to the gangs could lead to 'criminal charges and inadmissibility or removal from the United States'. The conflict in Haiti has been met with little international response, while neighboring countries, including the US, have continued to deport migrants back to the Caribbean nation despite United Nations pleas not to due to humanitarian concerns. More than 1 million people have been displaced by the conflict, and tens of thousands more in recent weeks, as the violence has spread to central Haiti, forcing more health facilities to shut their doors and pushing more people into severe food insecurity. Frozen US funding for security efforts and the dismantling of the US Agency for International Development, as well as other cuts, also complicate the situation. The latest designations come after the US in February designated Venezuela's Tren de Aragua gang, alongside a number of other organized crime groups across Latin America, including Mexico's Sinaloa cartel, as global terrorist organizations. It was unclear what, if any, impact the terrorist designation would have regarding Haiti. Those who do business in Haiti also could be affected by the new designation. Gangs control the areas surrounding a key fuel depot and the country's biggest and most important port, as well as the main roads that lead in and out of the capital, where they charge tolls. 'It could function as a de facto embargo,' said Jake Johnston, the international research director at the Washington-based Center for Economic and Policy Research. 'The gangs exercise tremendous control over the commerce of the country,' he said. 'Doing any kind of business with Haiti or in Haiti is going to carry much greater risk.' Armed groups in Haiti have made significant gains in the first part of 2025, as an under-resourced, UN-backed security mission has stalled, and along with police has been unable to hold off advances of the heavily-armed and well-funded gangs. The UN has called for tougher measures to prevent guns being trafficked to the Haitian gangs, especially from the US, which it said was the major source of illegal firearms in Haiti via ports in Florida. Haiti has not held an election since 2016 and the man elected president then, Jovenel Moïse, was assassinated in 2021.
New York Times
02-05-2025
- Politics
- New York Times
Trump Labels Haiti's Powerful Gangs as Terrorists
A powerful alliance of armed gangs in Haiti that has plunged the country into violence and launched attacks against state institutions was designated on Friday by the Trump administration as a terrorist group. The move is likely to worsen an already dire humanitarian crisis in Haiti, where gangs control much of the country's economy, including key access and distribution points, including the main ports and major roads. The coalition of gangs, called Viv Ansanm — which means Living Together, in Haitian Creole — emerged last year under a pledge to protect civilians, but then immediately banded together to attack communities, prisons, hospitals and police forces. President Trump's designation gives his administration broad power to impose economic penalties on the criminal group, and potentially even take military action. But it also allows sanctions to be imposed on anyone whom the United States accuses of doing business with the gang coalition. If enforced, the move could end all trade with Haiti, experts say, since virtually no goods can move in or out of the capital, Port-au-Prince, without the payment of fees to the gangs. 'Humanitarian access programs would also likely cease,' Jake Johnston, a senior research associate at the Center for Economic and Policy Research, said in a post on social media. 'Can't enter a community to disperse aid without negotiations' with the gangs.
