Government research shows dramatic decline in numbers in western Hudson Bay stronghold
Polar bears are disappearing fast from the western part of Hudson Bay on the southern tip of the Canadian Arctic, according to a government survey.
The report said there had been a dramatic decline in the of number of female bears and cubs in particular.
Continue reading...Grisly discovery rocks capital, an oasis of tentative calm in a country that saw more than 35,000 murders last year
The two brothers’ bodies were found in a cellar, bound hand and foot, their heads wrapped in packing tape. Their elderly uncle, who had also been murdered, lay nearby.
The grisly discovery, announced by authorities on Sunday, has rocked Mexico City, piercing the veneer of relative safety that has long characterised the capital, an oasis of tentative calm in a country awash with violence.
Continue reading...Proposal to dismantle existing reserves for ‘uncontacted’ Indigenous groups quietly pushed amid ongoing political chaos
Amid the political chaos following the ousting of Peru’s President Pedro Castillo, lawmakers in the country’s congress are quietly trying to pass a bill into law that would strip “uncontacted” Indigenous people of protection and dismantle existing reserves created for them.
The bill proposes to modify a 2006 law protecting Indigenous peoples in “isolation” and “initial contact” – those living with little or no contact with the outside world – in order to halt the creation of new reserves and eliminate existing ones, of which there are seven in Peru’s Amazon.
Continue reading...President-elect says transition team have found ‘simplest things not being done’ as result of Bolsonaro mismanagement
Public services in Brazil face a “very real threat of collapse” as a result of the mismanagement by the outgoing far-right government, and the incoming administration will have a “herculean task” in rebuilding damaged institutions, particularly in the fields of health, education and the environment, the country’s president-elect has said.
Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva beat the far-right incumbent, Jair Bolsonaro, in a tightly fought election in October and is due to take power on 1 January.
Continue reading...Campaign to stem the spread of the disease takes place against a backdrop of political chaos, gang violence and fuel shortages
Haiti has received its first shipment of cholera vaccines since an outbreak was declared more than two months ago.
The first of the 1.1m doses, delivered last week, will be distributed in the capital, Port-au-Prince, and surrounding areas in the hope of stemming the spread of the disease, which has been aided by political instability and lawlessness.
Continue reading...Open letter calls on Andrés Manuel López Obrador to rein in rhetoric or risk ‘even bloodier era’ of deadly violence against press
Mexico could be plunged into “an even bloodier” era of deadly violence against the press unless its populist leader stops harassing the media, scores of top journalists have warned after an apparent attempt to assassinate one of Mexico’s best-known news anchors shocked the nation.
In an open letter, the signatories – who include professionals from major outlets including El Universal, Excélsior, Milenio and Reforma – issued a rebuke to Mexico’s media-bashing president, Andrés Manuel López Obrador.
Continue reading...FTX founder set to be charged with eight criminal counts, including fraud, conspiracy and money-laundering offenses
Sam Bankman-Fried, the jailed founder of the collapsed crypto-currency exchange FTX, is expected to fly back to the US on Wednesday to face criminal charges after waiving his right to contest extradition from the Bahamas.
After several days of conflicting signals from Bankman-Fried’s US and Bahamian legal teams, the disgraced crypto-king appeared in court in Nassau to inform a magistrate judge of his decision.
Continue reading...The suspects – ages 13 to 16 – were said to have met via social media before gathering downtown and allegedly ‘swarming’ victim
Eight teenage girls who appear to have met on social media have been charged with second-degree murder over the death of a 59-year-old man who was stabbed in downtown Toronto.
Police allege that the girls assaulted and stabbed the man at a plaza near the main rail station in Canada’s largest city early on Sunday morning. Three of the girls are 13, three are 14 and two are 16, police said on Tuesday.
Continue reading...Antonio Oseguera Cervantes, brother of cartel boss ‘El Mencho’, is third member of family to be arrested by Mexican authorities
The brother of one of Mexico’s top drug lords has been arrested, the Mexican military said, marking another high-profile capture amid a wave of violence that has overwhelmed the country.
Antonio Oseguera Cervantes, brother of the Jalisco New Generation cartel boss known as “El Mencho”, was arrested on Tuesday in the state of Jalisco by the Mexican army working with the national guard, the attorney general’s office and the national intelligence agency.
Continue reading...Emergency housing, food and other essentials had been set up in preparation for an influx of migrants at Texas border cities
Along the US southern border, two cities – El Paso, Texas, and Ciudad Juárez just across the waters of the Rio Grande in Mexico – were trying to prepare for a new surge of as many as 5,000 new migrants a day as pandemic-era immigration restrictions were set to expire this week, setting in motion plans for emergency housing, food and other essentials.
Even with the ruling from the US Supreme Court on Monday evening that the restriction known as Title 42 would not end after all, as had been ordered by a lower court, confusion and tension were high.
Continue reading...Francesco Velli, 73, had history of harassing neighbours before killing three members of the condo board and two others
The man who shot and killed five people at a suburban Toronto condominium on Sunday evening had spent years harassing his neighbours and threatening the building’s condo board over a belief that the building’s electrical room was making him sick.
At a news conference on Monday, York region police chief James MacSween identified the gunman in Sunday night’s attack in the city of Vaughn as Francesco Velli.
Continue reading...Supporters of ousted president Pedro Castillo had blocked train tracks near Inca citadel with rocks
Tourists visiting Peru’s Inca citadel of Machu Picchu have been evacuated by helicopter to the nearby city of Cusco where flights to the capital, Lima, are operating normally, the country’s tourism ministry said on Monday.
Scores had been trapped in and around the Inca ruin after protesters had used rocks to block trains that run to Cusco since Tuesday, forcing some tourists to hike to the nearest town of Ollantaytambo.
Continue reading...Findings this month of geoglyphs, which date back more than 2,000 years, are smaller and can be seen from the ground
More than 100 new designs discovered in and around Peru’s ancient Nazca plain and surrounding areas could bring new information to light about the mysterious pre-Columbian artworks that have intrigued scientists and visitors for decades.
Following two years of field surveys with aerial photos and drones, Peruvian and Japanese researches from Yamagata University earlier this month reported the discovery of 168 new designs at the Unesco World Heritage site on Peru’s southern Pacific coast.
Continue reading...Government plans to seize US$26m from Granite Capital Holdings, owned by sanctioned former Chelsea FC owner
Canada plans to seize US$26m from a company owned by the sanctioned Russian oligarch Roman Abramovich, the federal government said on Monday.
The pursuit of Abramovich’s Granite Capital Holdings marks a first attempt by Ottawa to seize assets belonging to a sanctioned individual and reflects a broader strategy to punish Russia and its wealthy elite for the invasion of Ukraine.
Continue reading...More than a million people were in the streets of Buenos Aires celebrating the victory, according to estimates from authorities
Around the Obelisk in Buenos Aires, revellers in football shirts, hats, wigs and face-paint in the Argentinian colours danced long into the night to drums and sound systems blaring cumbia and reggaeton.
Young people climbed fences, light posts and the giant BA sign at the foot of the monument. It was an ecstatic tribute to a World Cup victory this country had been waiting for ever since this football-mad nation last carried the trophy home in 1986.
Continue reading...Police in Canada shoot dead suspect after receiving reports of an active male shooter in Vaughan on Sunday night
Five people have been shot and killed in a residential unit in a Toronto suburb before the gunman was killed by police, authorities have said.
Police were called to a residential building in Vaughan, Ontario, at about 7.20pm on Sunday to reports of an active male shooter who had shot several victims at a condo in Vaughan, Ontario.
Continue reading...Streets of central Buenos Aires are a cacophony of yelling and horns after shootout victory against France
If there’s one thing Argentina fans have learned in this World Cup, it’s that you can’t rest on your laurels when you’re 2-0 up. But after a dramatic penalty shootout, there was delight in Buenos Aires that Argentina will be bringing home football’s most coveted trophy.
In La Puerta Roja, a bar in the downtown San Telmo district, so many people packed in early to watch the final that there was a queue outside an hour and a half before kickoff. The air smelled of adrenaline and the commentators could barely be heard over the din of yelling, hands banging on tables, and the occasional glass smashing.
Continue reading...The activist for native peoples says she will work to overturn the ‘catastrophic legacy’ from Jair Bolsonaro’s presidency
The activist tipped to become Brazil’s first-ever minister for native peoples has vowed to make the demarcation of Indigenous lands and the battle against environmental crime top priorities in an attempt to overcome Jair Bolsonaro’s “catastrophic legacy” of Amazon devastation and violence.
Sônia Guajajara, a key member of Brazil’s burgeoning Indigenous rights movement, is widely expected to be named head of the ministry, which president-elect Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva promised to create during his campaign.
Continue reading...Clinicians say there is concern that the country’s healthcare system is inadequate to protect most vulnerable
Canada is delaying plans which would allow people with mental illness to access medically assisted death amid concern from some clinicians that the healthcare system is not prepared to handle the complicated cases.
Starting March 2023, Canada is expected to become one of the few countries in the world to allow physician-assisted death for chronic mental disorders.
Continue reading...In the capital, where Maradona is worshipped as a god, World Cup victory would take on a spiritual dimension
In June, Tomás Kuklis visited family in his native Argentina from his home in New York. When conversation turned to the upcoming World Cup, it brought back the happiest memories of his childhood. He was rocked by a wave of nostalgia for friends and food, but especially for his lifelong passion: football.
So, he took a bold decision: he would sell all his things and move back to Buenos Aires to watch the tournament. It was a choice some might consider radical. But in this South American country where football is arguably a spiritual experience, it felt like keeping the faith.
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