Category Archives: Americas

Argentina races to find origins of cruise ship hantavirus outbreak, amid reports some passengers have returned to US

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Argentina, where the MV Hondius cruise departed, consistently ranked by WHO as having highest incidence of hantavirus in region

Officials and experts in Argentina are scrambling to determine if their country is the source of a deadly hantavirus outbreak that has gripped an Atlantic cruise ship, amid reports that a number of passengers have already returned to their home countries.

Argentina, where the cruise to Antarctica departed, is consistently ranked by the World Health Organization (WHO) as having the highest incidence of the rare, rodent-borne disease in Latin America. Investigators there are working to contact trace the source of contamination.

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US says migration has made Europe an ‘incubator’ for terrorism in new counter-terrorism strategy

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The 16-page report was led by Trump-ally Sebastian Gorka, and places drug cartels in the Americas at the centre of counter-terrorism efforts

The Trump administration has accused Europe of being an “incubator” for terrorism fuelled by mass migration, in a new counter-terrorism strategy unveiled on Wednesday.

The strategy also focuses on rooting out “violent left-wing extremists” including “radically pro-transgender” groups, as Trump’s conservative administration steps up its political attacks on opponents.

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Mexico nightclub’s $300 cover charge for US citizens captures popular mood

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Owner of Japan nightclub says ‘This is a response to a year of insults directed at us – as a country – by the United States’

A Mexico City nightclub has gone viral for charging Americans a nearly $300 cover charge, while citizens from any other country pay just $20 for access, and Mexicans and other Latin Americans pay only $14.

The Instagram announcement from the nightclub Japan in the Roma Norte neighborhood has been liked over 26,000 times and received more than 200 comments, mostly supporting the policy as part of a broader revolt in the capital against what many see as a US takeover.

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Search called off for Australian hiker missing in rugged Canadian national park

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Police suspend ‘extensive’ six-day air and ground search in Nova Scotia, citing ‘no new information’

Teams in eastern Canada have called off an “extensive” six-day air and ground search of a rugged park for a missing Australian hiker.

The Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) said this week it had suspended operations after an effort involving dogs, 100 people, aircraft and ground crews yielded “no new information” in the whereabouts of Denise Ann Willams.

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Alberta separatists submit 300,000 signatures to push independence referendum

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Authorities investigate leak of 2.9 million voters’ details, adding to turmoil around independence push

Alberta separatists have delivered more than 300,000 signatures to elections officials in western Canada, in support of their attempt to force an independence referendum in Canada’s oil-rich province.

But the effort stumbled immediately as a separatist-linked group posted the personal data of nearly three million residents online in one of the largest data breaches in Canadian history, fomenting fears of a possible political interference crisis.

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Carney appoints former war crimes prosecutor as Canada governor general

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Louise Arbour will serve as Canada’s representative of King Charles and carry out ceremonial and constitutional duties

Canada’s prime minister, Mark Carney, has appointed a former supreme court justice and war crimes prosecutor as the country’s new governor general, saying her appointment would reflect the importance of global institutions.

Louise Arbour, a celebrated jurist, served as United Nations commissioner and prosecuted war crimes in the former Yugoslavia and Rwanda, will serve as Canada’s representative of King Charles III.

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Canadian fiddler sues Google after AI Overview wrongly claimed he was a sex offender

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Ashley MacIsaac, who is seeking $1.5m in civil lawsuit, says inaccurate information led to concert cancellation

An acclaimed Canadian fiddle player has launched a $1.5m civil lawsuit against Google, alleging that the online giant defamed him by falsely identifying him as a sex offender in an AI-generated summary of his life and career.

Ashley MacIsaac, a three-time Juno award-winning musician, filed the claim in the Ontario superior court of justice, asserting that Google was liable for the “foreseeable republication” of its AI-generated Overview feature, which previously published defamatory claims that he had been convicted of multiple criminal offences, including the sexual assault of a woman, internet luring involving a child with the intention of sexual assaulting the child, and assault causing bodily harm.

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Canada to be first non-European nation at EPC summit as Carney seeks allies

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PM’s attendance at European Political Community meeting in Yerevan seen as part of effort to build new ties after US rupture

Canada is to become the first non-European country to attend a meeting of the European Political Community when the prime minister, Mark Carney, joins Monday’s summit of the 48-plus nation grouping in Yerevan, Armenia.

Carney has said he is determined to build a new network of trade and diplomatic alliances after the loss of US markets under Donald Trump. His presence will also represent a show of western support for Armenia in its efforts to distance itself from Russia at a time when Washington’s approach to Moscow’s opponents, such as Ukraine, is at best ambiguous. Canadian diplomats have rejected suggestions Ottawa might seek EU membership.

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German museum to return rare Irritator dinosaur skull to Brazil

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Spinosaurid fossil bought by Stuttgart institution in 1991 has been the subject of a long restitution campaign

It is a 113-million-year-old bone of contention.

After Stuttgart’s museum of natural history bought a fossilised dinosaur skull in 1991, researchers found it was the most complete spinosaurid skull known to date, belonging to a previously unknown genus of the huge meat-eating dinosaurs.

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Cuba says Trump’s fresh sanctions on its economy amount to ‘collective punishment’

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The US sanctions target people operating in broad sections of Cuban economy, including energy, defence and mining

Cuba’s government has said new sanctions imposed on the island by Donald Trump amounted to “collective punishment”, as an enormous 1 May procession outside the American embassy in Havana vowed to “defend the homeland”.

In an executive order on Friday, the US president said he would impose sanctions on people involved in broad sections of the Cuban economy, as he seeks to put more pressure on Havana after ousting Venezuela’s leader, Nicolás Maduro, earlier this year.

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Pope appoints former undocumented immigrant as bishop of West Virginia

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Leo, who has criticized Trump’s hardline immigration policy, selected Evelio Menjivar-Ayala as state’s new bishop

Pope Leo XIV has appointed a man who had once entered the United States as an undocumented immigrant, hidden in the trunk of a car, as the new bishop of West Virginia.

The pope approved the resignation of Bishop Mark E Brennan of Wheeling-Charleston, West Virginia, and selected Bishop Evelio Menjivar-Ayala, 55, of Washington to take his place, reported OSV News.

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Australian hiker missing in Nova Scotia national park not heard from for two weeks

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Denise Ann Williams, 62, was last heard from on 15 April, when she told her family she was travelling to the west coast of Cape Breton Island in Canada’s east

A search is underway in Canada for a 62-year-old Australian woman who was reported missing on Tuesday while hiking in a coastal national park in the country’s south-east.

Denise Ann Williams was last heard from on 15 April, when she told family she was travelling to Chéticamp, a fishing village on the west coast of Cape Breton Island in the province of Nova Scotia.

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Brazil’s congress approves bill reducing prison sentence of former president Jair Bolsonaro

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President Lula’s veto of the bill was overturned by Brazil’s congress and senate, meaning it now awaits confirmation by supreme court

Brazil’s largely conservative congress has approved a bill reducing the prison sentence of the far-right former president Jair Bolsonaro, who was convicted last year of attempting a coup.

The bill had initially been passed by congress in December, but President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva vetoed it in January in a symbolic move marking three years since Bolsonaro supporters ransacked the capital, Brasília.

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‘A new chapter’: first commercial flight from US since 2019 lands in Venezuela

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Four months after US capture of Nicolás Maduro, officials hail repairing of ties as airliner touches down in Caracas

US and Venezuelan officials have hailed a new era in diplomatic relations as the first direct commercial flight between the two countries in more than seven years landed in Caracas.

Nearly four months ago, US special forces attack helicopters and planes swept into the skies over Venezuela’s capital after Donald Trump ordered the capture of its president, Nicolás Maduro.

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Canada to create powerful financial crimes agency as US weakens its approach

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Cryptocurrency ATMs also face ban, after public inquiry found Canada lacked anti-money-laundering strategy

Canada is to establish a new and powerful law enforcement agency to investigate financial crime, in stark contrast to the US, where weakened federal investigators have struggled to pursue fraudsters and the White House has pardoned convicted money launderers.

A bill to create the Financial Crimes Agency (FCA) completed its first reading in parliament this week. The legislation was introduced by the governing Liberals and with their parliamentary majority, the party is likely to move it through both levels of government quickly.

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Thousands of US hockey fans sing Canadian anthem amid tensions between neighbor countries

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Fans in Buffalo, only a few miles from Ontario, filled the silence when a microphone cut out at the start of a match

The Electric City. Nickel City. Queen City. City of No Illusions.

Buffalo, New York, has accrued many nicknames over the years but, in an age of growing tensions between two traditional allies, one among them has taken on extra resonance: the City of Good Neighbors.

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Indian billionaire’s son offers to house Pablo Escobar’s hippos at his private zoo

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Anant Ambani revives offer to transport 80 animals, all descendants of Colombian drug kingpin’s pets, to India

It remains one of the strangest conundrums in modern zoological history – what to do with the descendants of Pablo Escobar’s hippos?

The animals – herbivores native to sub-Saharan Africa – were originally imported into Colombia by the drug kingpin for his own entertainment. But the beasts and their offspring were left to roam free after his death in 1993.

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US soldier pleads not guilty to charges of betting on Nicolás Maduro’s ouster

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Prosecutors allege Gannon Van Dyke won $400,000 using insider information to bet on Maduro raid on Polymarket

The US army soldier charged with winning $400,000 by using insider information to bet on the removal of the ousted Venezuelan president Nicolás Maduro pleaded not guilty to fraud charges on Tuesday.

Gannon Ken Van Dyke, 38, entered the plea in US district judge Margaret Garnett’s courtroom in Manhattan. Van Dyke sported a shaved head and wore a black blazer, jeans and brown shoes as he arrived to the courtroom with his lawyers, Zach Intrater and Mark Geragos.

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Mexico warns US involvement in anti-drug operation should not be repeated

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Claudia Sheinbaum says Mexico was not aware of US participation until four officials were killed in car crash

Claudia Sheinbaum, Mexico’s president, said on Monday that her government told the United States, in a diplomatic note, that the unauthorized presence of US officials at an anti-narcotics operation in the northern state of Chihuahua should not be repeated.

The incident came to light after two US officials, along with two Mexican officials, were killed in a car crash on 19 April after the operation. Sheinbaum has said the federal government was not aware of the participation of the US officials, who were widely reported to be CIA officers.

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Bomb blast on Colombia highway leaves 21 dead amid pre-election violence

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Cocaine-trafficking rebels blamed for worst attack on civilians in decades, which also left 56 people injured

The death toll in a Colombian highway bombing blamed on cocaine-trafficking rebels has risen to 21, the government said on Monday, in the country’s worst attack on civilians in decades and just ahead of elections.

The attack on Saturday left 56 injured and buses and vans mangled on the Pan-American Highway, in the restive south-western Cauca department.

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