Exhibition at Halton Mill is part of a month of activities about the Amazon commemorating Phillips and Pereira
An exhibition in memory of the murdered Guardian journalist Dom Phillips and indigenous expert Bruno Pereira opens on Sunday ahead of an international conference on saving the Amazon rainforest which is being held next month.
The two men were killed in Brazilian Amazonia in June 2022 while researching a book Phillips was writing called How to Save the Amazon.
Continue reading...Man posing as Brazilian academic José Assis Giammaria thought to have used his time in the country to build up a deep-cover identity
A suspected Russian spy who posed as a Brazilian academic before his arrest this week by Norway’s domestic security agency spent years studying at Canadian universities with a focus on Arctic security issues.
The man, who called himself José Assis Giammaria, worked as researcher at the University of Tromsø and was arrested on suspicion he had entered Norway under false pretences. On Friday, prosecutor Thomas Blom named the man as Mikhail Mikushin, adding that Norway’s domestic security agency was “not positively sure of his identity, but we are quite certain that he is not Brazilian”.
Continue reading...Gangs believed to control about 60% of Port-au-Prince as Haitians also struggling with dwindling supplies for food, water and basics
Gang violence, kidnapping and intimidation has forced about 96,000 people to flee their homes in Haiti’s capital, the UN’s International Organization for Migration (IOM) said on Friday, as the country faces a crisis that has prompted the government to request the immediate deployment of foreign troops.
The IOM said gang-related violence has led to “racketeering, kidnappings and wider criminal acts in a context characterized by deep inequalities, high levels of deprivation of basic human needs and a fragmented security environment”.
Continue reading...Claim of ‘greatest electoral fraud ever seen’ raises concern that far-right president is echoing Donald Trump’s playbook
Fears are growing that Jair Bolsonaro could refuse to accept defeat in Brazil’s crunch election this Sunday after his politician son claimed Brazil’s far-right president was the victim of “the greatest electoral fraud ever seen” amid unproven allegations of foul play.
The assertion from the president’s senator son, Flávio Bolsonaro, was almost identical to language used by Donald Trump – Bolsonaro’s most prominent international backer – after he lost the 2020 US election to Joe Biden.
Continue reading...Ex-provincial minister convicted over death of his wife attended speech arguing government is ‘too lenient’ on violent offenders
The conservative government of the Canadian province of Saskatchewan is under scrutiny after a convicted murderer was invited to attend its tough-on-crime speech.
On Wednesday the province’s lieutenant governor, Russell Mirasty, presented the throne speech, outlining the conservative administration’s agenda and arguing the federal government was “too lenient” on violent offenders.
Continue reading...RCMP looking into ‘reports of criminal activity’ surrounding facilities allegedly used to pressure Chinese nationals abroad
Canada’s federal police force is investigating reports that clandestine Chinese “police stations” are operating in Toronto amid reports of a global network used to target overseas dissidents.
The Royal Canada Mounted Police said it was investigating “reports of criminal activity in relation to the so-called ‘police’ stations” but did not specify the location of the sites.
Continue reading...Consulates inundated with inquiries, with 700,000 descendants thought to be entitled to fast-track nationality
Once Spaniards looked across el charco (the pond) for refuge. Now traffic is expected to go the other way after Spain passed a law granting citizenship to the grandchildren of people exiled under the Franco dictatorship.
Lawyers and consulates in central and South America say they have been inundated with inquiries after the passing of the democratic memory law, which seeks “to settle Spanish democracy’s debt to its past”. It is estimated that as many as 700,000 people could be eligible for citizenship under the law, which passed the upper house of parliament on 5 October and came into effect on 21 October.
Continue reading...Congress votes to scrap daylight savings and just keep standard time, meaning end to changing clocks twice a year
Pedro López, an office worker in the Mexican state of Veracruz, gets up before dawn, and drives in the moonlight an hour and a half to his job. “Leaving my house in the dark every single day and driving under the moon is horrible, especially in a landscape as beautiful as Veracruz,” he said.
But, for half a year at least, he’ll be driving in the sunlight. Mexico’s congress voted on Wednesday to abolish summer time, and when Mexicans set their clocks back this weekend, it will be for the last time. In March, they will not be turned forward.
Continue reading...The government slush fund, which amounts to about one-fifth of the entire discretionary spending budget, has little or no oversight
When historians write books about why so many Brazilians voted for the far-right they will justifiably focus on ideological, political and social issues. But there is another key reason why President Jair Bolsonaro is still competitive as Sunday’s runoff ballot approaches: he’s handing out billions from a government slush fund.
The fund is known as the “secret budget” because there is little or no oversight over where the money goes once it is handed to lawmakers.
Continue reading...A Quebec judge invalidates the police power to pull over drivers without cause, concluding they violate country’s charter
A Canadian court has ruled that random traffic stops violate the country’s charter, striking down the “unbounded power” of police in searches that often amount to racial profiling.
A Quebec superior judge ruled on Tuesday that police cannot pull over drivers without cause.
Continue reading...Yves-François Blanchet, leader of Bloc Québécois, says ‘slave-driven’ British monarchy is ‘archaic’ and ‘humiliating’
The leader of Canada’s Quebec separatist party has renewed calls for the country to sever its ties with the “incredibly racist” and “slave-driven” British monarchy ahead of the coronation of King Charles III.
The Bloc Québécois leader, Yves-François Blanchet, tabled a motion on Tuesday, widely seen as purely symbolic, in the House of Commons.
Continue reading...Bolsonaro ally Roberto Jefferson said he was resisting arrest ‘in the name of freedom, democracy and family values’
Brazil’s toxic presidential election has taken a surreal and violent turn after a radical ally of the far-right president, Jair Bolsonaro, used hand grenades and a rifle to attack federal police officers as they attempted to arrest him.
Roberto Jefferson, a former congressman who has called Bolsonaro a “personal friend”, launched the attack on Sunday after police arrived at his home in the mountains north of Rio de Janeiro. Two officers reportedly sustained non-fatal shrapnel wounds, while photographs showed a federal police vehicle riddled with bullet holes.
Continue reading...Cameras are credited with huge drop in crime by and against law enforcement but Bolsonaro ally prefers ‘to trust the police’
Two years ago, São Paulo became the first state in Brazil to issue body cameras to its police officers, and the results were stunning: the number of people killed in clashes with police fell by more than half and the number of people resisting arrest fell by almost two-thirds.
So what is the favourite in the race to become São Paulo governor talking about doing? Removing the cameras.
Continue reading...Roslyn hit land as category 3 hurricane before weakening as it headed inland
Two people died on Sunday from destruction caused by tropical storm Roslyn after it made landfall along Mexico’s Pacific coast as a powerful hurricane before weakening farther inland, authorities said.
A 74-year-old man was killed in the town of Mexcaltitan de Santiago Ixcuintla when a beam fell on his head, Nayarit state’s ministry of security and citizen protection said. A 39-year-old woman died when a fence collapsed in the state’s Rosamorada district.
Continue reading...Rubens Villar Coelho, suspected of ‘leading and financing’ armed group, to await trial under house arrest
A man suspected of involvement in the killing of the British journalist Dom Phillips and the Brazilian Indigenous activist Bruno Pereira has been released from jail, according to reports from the Amazon region.
Rubens Villar Coelho, known by the alias “Colombia”, was set free on Friday, although news of his release came 24 hours later.
Continue reading...Viengsay Valdés, 44, has the tough task of renewing the Cuban National Ballet’s reputation as country finds itself in crisis
Cuba’s favourite ballerina, Viengsay Valdés, will run on to the stage of the island’s National Theatre on 2 November, fairly certain it won’t collapse beneath her.
Reprising the role of Giselle she first performed 25 years ago, she can’t use Havana’s more glamorous auditorium, the rococo Gran Teatro de la Habana Alicia Alonso, because that is being devoured by woodworm.
Continue reading...Charles Steele runs against estranged brother Bill in Port Colborne mayoral race – but siblings keep mum on source of conflict
When Charles Steele stepped on to a debate stage last week, it was the first time since the election campaign began that he’d confronted his lone opponent in a bitterly contested race to become mayor of a small Canadian town.
The encounter also marked the first time he’d spoken to his brother Bill – the incumbent mayor – in more than 30 years.
Continue reading...A dozen people were rescued from burning homes after a tanker truck crashed into a railway overpass in the central town of Aguascalientes
A huge blaze erupted in central Mexico after a fuel tanker truck crashed into an overpass by a rail line, scorching homes, engulfing the area in thick smoke and leading to a mass evacuation, but causing no fatalities, authorities said.
Video footage of the fire on social media showed a cargo train hurtling through the flames after Thursday’s accident in the city of Aguascalientes, as stunned drivers at the scene retreated from their cars holding children close.
Continue reading...Survivors of St Anne’s Indian residential school allege government withheld key evidence in determining compensation for victims
Canada’s supreme court has declined to hear an appeal brought by a group of Indigenous residential school survivors, dealing a major blow to their decade-long fight against federal government over thousands of unreleased documents.
Survivors of St Anne’s Indian residential school had hoped the country’s top court would take their case, which alleges Canada’s federal government withheld key evidence in determining compensation for victims of abuse at the school in northern Ontario.
Continue reading...Musician was found guilty earlier this year for sexually assaulting an Ottawa woman in a ‘particularly degrading rape’
Jacob Hoggard, the front man for the Canadian band Hedley, has been sentenced to five years in prison on Thursday after he was found guilty earlier this year of sexually assaulting an Ottawa woman in what the presiding judge called a “particularly degrading rape”.
Ontario superior court justice Gillian Roberts said she accepted the woman’s testimony in its entirety and said it involved “gratuitous degradation” and “gratuitous violence”.
Information and support for anyone affected by rape or sexual abuse issues is available from the following organisations. In the US, Rainn offers support on 800-656-4673. In the UK, Rape Crisis offers support on 0808 802 9999. In Australia, support is available at 1800Respect (1800 737 732). Other international helplines can be found at ibiblio.org/rcip/internl.html
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