Comic, real name Xavier López, fronted children’s TV show that ran from 1967 to 2015
The Mexican children’s entertainer Xavier López, better known by his stage name Chabelo, has died at 88, Mexico’s president has said.
Andrés Manuel López Obrador tweeted that his eldest son “woke up early to see him [on television] more than 40 years ago”.
Continue reading...Move following meetings in Ottawa with the US president will in effect close a controversial border crossing
Justin Trudeau’s government has announced a major shift in how Canada and the US handle asylum claims, a move that effectively closes a controversial border crossing, after meetings in Ottawa on Friday with Joe Biden.
Under the deal, which Canadian officials hope will temper the increase in irregular border crossings in recent months, Canada will bring in 15,000 more South and Central American migrants to Canada. The prime minister’s office said in a statement the agreement would ensure more “fairness” in migration between the two countries.
Continue reading...Acute hunger is affecting 4.9 million Haitians, according to a UN report, which outlines the increased need for humanitarian aid
Haitians are increasingly desperate for humanitarian aid as gang violence engulfing the country has left nearly half the population regularly going hungry, a World Food Programme (WFP) report has found.
“These are the worst conditions on record,” said Jean-Martin Bauer, WFP’s Haiti director. “Food insecurity in Haiti has been going downhill and Haiti is sliding into a hunger emergency.”
Continue reading...Human rights court hears seriously ill woman denied procedure as advocates call for change in region with world’s most restrictive abortion laws
Human rights activists in Latin America hope that a historic court hearing over the case of a Salvadoran woman who was denied an abortion despite her high-risk pregnancy could open the way for El Salvador to decriminalize abortions – and set an important precedent across the region.
The inter-American court of human rights (IACHR) this week considered the historic case of the woman, known as Beatriz, who was prohibited from having an abortion in 2013, even though she was seriously ill and the foetus she was carrying would not have survived outside the uterus.
Continue reading...Poor internet and logistical problems frustrate hearing into killing of British journalist and Brazilian Indigenous expert
Activists and lawyers representing the families of Dom Phillips and Bruno Pereira have voiced frustration and anger after the preliminary court hearings of three of their alleged murderers had to be suspended because of poor internet and logistical problems at the high-security prisons where the defendants are being held.
Three of the suspected killers of the British journalist and Brazilian Indigenous specialist were scheduled to give evidence from behind bars this week during partly online hearings that are expected to pave the way for a jury trial, possibly in the second half of this year.
Continue reading...Han Dong reportedly met with Chinese diplomat and suggested officials delay freeing two Canadians held by China
A Canadian lawmaker has resigned from the governing Liberal party following allegations that he secretly met with a Chinese diplomat and advised Beijing not to release two Canadian captives.
Han Dong announced in the House of Commons late on Wednesday that he would sit as an independent. Global News reported that he met with Han Tao, China’s consul-general in Toronto in February 2021 and suggested officials in Beijing delay freeing Michael Kovrig and Michael Spavor, two Canadians being held by China at the time. He is also alleged to have suggested releasing the two men would benefit the rival Conservative party.
Continue reading...University of British Columbia researchers develop silica-based material with ability to absorb wider range of harmful chemicals
Researchers at a Canadian university have made a breakthrough they hope will dramatically shorten the lifespan of the thousands of toxic “forever chemicals” that persist in clothing, household items and the environment.
Scientists at the University of British Columbia announced on Wednesday that they had developed a new silica-based material with ability to absorb a wider range of the harmful chemicals, and new tools to break them apart them.
Continue reading...Two dembow progenitors are suing superstars including Luis Fonsi and Daddy Yankee – in a case that also names Justin Bieber – claiming that they deserve credit for birthing the genre
With the release of their song Fish Market in 1989, the Jamaican duo Cleveland “Clevie” Browne and Wycliffe “Steely” Johnson inadvertently changed the course of pop music. The track featured the first known example of what would come to be known as a “dembow” rhythm – the percussive, slightly syncopated four-to-the-floor beat that travelled from reggae to become the signature beat of reggaeton, today the world-conquering sound of Latin American pop.
Now, more than 30 years after Fish Market was released, Steely & Clevie Productions is suing three of reggaeton’s most celebrated hitmakers – El Chombo, Luis Fonsi and Daddy Yankee – for what they characterise as unlawful interpolation of Fish Market’s rhythm (or “riddim”), and are seeking the credit – and royalties – they say they deserved from the start.
Continue reading...Tsai Ing-wen will visit allies Guatemala and Belize next week, and stopover in the US, after Honduras said it would establish ‘official relations’ with China
Taiwan’s defence ministry has contingency plans for any moves by China during Taiwan President Tsai Ing-wen’s visit to the US and Central America, deputy defence minister Po Horng-huei has said ahead of Tsai’s departure next week.
China, which claims democratically governed Taiwan as its own territory, carried out large-scale, live-fire war games around the island last August after a visit to Taipei by then-US House Speaker Nancy Pelosi.
Continue reading...‘Specialized support force’ urged for Caribbean state where 530 have been killed in gang-led violence so far this year
The United Nations has called for the deployment of an international “specialized support force” to impede Haiti’s accelerating tumble into extreme violence after more than 530 people were killed in the opening weeks of this year.
“Clashes between gangs are becoming more violent and more frequent,” the spokesperson for the UN human rights office, Marta Hurtado, warned on Tuesday, voicing “grave concern” that the security situation was spiraling out of control.
Continue reading...Lenin Artieda was one of several journalists targeted by explosive devices mailed out across the country
An Ecuadorian television presenter was wounded after a bomb disguised as a USB stick exploded when he inserted it in his computer, after explosive devices were sent to journalists across the country.
Lenin Artieda suffered minor injuries in the blast, which happened in the newsroom of Ecuavisa TV in Guayaquil.
Continue reading...Two victims and the student taken to hospital for treatment after incident in Halifax
Police officers have arrested a student on suspicion of stabbing two staff members at a high school in Canada’s Atlantic coast city of Halifax, police said.
The two victims and the student were taken to hospital for treatment after the attack on Monday, and the extent of their injuries remains unclear. Halifax regional police confirmed that the suspect is a student at the school.
Continue reading...Jackie Lansing sues coffee chain for C$500,000 after cup of tea that ‘collapsed’ and spilled on her stomach and legs left her ‘disfigured’
An Ontario woman and her family are suing Canada’s best-known coffee chain for C$500,000 ($366,000), alleging Tim Hortons served her “superheated” tea in a defective cup that left her with “horrific” burns on her body.
Jackie Lansing, 73, ordered a black tea while at a drive-through in southern Ontario last year.
Continue reading...Magnitude 6.8 quake shakes area 50 miles south of Ecuador’s second city, Guayaquil, with one death reported so far in Peru
A strong earthquake shook southern Ecuador and northern Peru on Saturday, killing at least 15 people, trapping others under rubble, and sending rescue teams out into streets littered with debris and fallen power lines.
The US Geological Survey reported an earthquake with a magnitude of about 6.8 in the country’s coastal Guayas region. Its centre was about 50 miles (80km) south of Guayaquil, which has a metropolitan area of more than 3 million people.
Continue reading...Discoveries that could help diabetics titled in honour of activist and journalist murdered in Amazon
Scientists in Brazil have found two new species of fermenting yeasts and named them after journalist Dom Phillips and activist Bruno Pereira, the two men murdered last year in the Amazon rainforest.
The discovery came from four isolates of the Spathaspora species, according to a paper published in the International Journal of Systematic and Evolutionary Microbiology.
Continue reading...Puerto Rico 0-0 Mexico, top 1st inning
Lindor is in the box against Urías and takes ball one to start the game. Urías gets ahead of Lindor 1-2, Lindor fouls off a pitch and then strikes out. Urías begins his outing with a k.
Continue reading...Andrés Manuel López Obrador cites a lack ‘of hugs and embraces’ for 70,000 annual overdose deaths attributed to synthetic opioid
Mexico’s president has said that US families were to blame for the fentanyl overdose crisis because they don’t hug their kids enough.
The comment by President Andrés Manuel López Obrador caps a week of provocative statements from him about the crisis caused by fentanyl, a synthetic opioid trafficked by Mexican cartels that has been blamed for about 70,000 overdose deaths per year in the United States.
Continue reading...Activists hopeful as Canada’s largest school district takes first step towards banning caste discrimination
When Vijay Puli arrived in Toronto with his wife and baby daughter, he thought they had finally left behind the discrimination, violence and social rejection they had faced in India.
Puli identifies as a Dalit, a member of a group who in India are considered to be at the very bottom rung, often deemed “untouchable”.
Continue reading...The influx of heavily armed gangs, now being tackled by President Lula, has had a catastrophic effect on infant health
The severely malnourished Yanomami baby girl is about eight months old but weighs just 2.75kg (6lbs) – less than half the average for her age. A catheter runs into her tiny right foot, delivering a blood transfusion doctors hope will save her life.
“This is a really difficult moment for us,” says Francinete Rodrigues, the director of the Santo Antônio children’s hospital in Boa Vista, an institution on the frontline of an Indigenous health catastrophe Brazil’s president calls an attempted genocide.
Continue reading...Exclusive: rare purple organism preys on trapdoor spider in behaviour reminiscent of its ‘zombie’ relatives that feature in apocalyptic TV show The Last of Us
Scientists believe they have discovered a new parasitic fungus which preys on trapdoor spiders in Brazil’s Atlantic rainforest.
The rare organism, which is purple, belongs to a group of fungi that infect invertebrates and take over the host. A closeup image shows the fungus wrapped around the body of a trapdoor spider, poking out of the burrow from which the arachnid grabs insects.
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