Category Archives: Americas

Lula vows to take on Amazon crime if returned to power in Brazil elections

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Ex-president says he will clamp down on illegal miners and loggers after murders of Dom Phillips and Bruno Pereira

The leading candidate to become Brazil’s next president has vowed to launch a major crackdown on the illegal miners and loggers laying waste to the Amazon in the wake of the “barbaric” murders of the Indigenous expert Bruno Pereira and the British journalist Dom Phillips.

Speaking to foreign journalists in São Paulo, former president Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva paid tribute to the two men, who were gunned down in June while documenting the historic assault on Indigenous lands that has unfolded under Brazil’s current leader, Jair Bolsonaro.

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Mexico’s ex-attorney general arrested over disappearance of 43 students in 2014

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Jesús Murillo held on charges of forced disappearance, torture and obstruction of justice in notorious Guerrero case

Mexico’s former attorney general has been arrested in relation to the disappearance of 43 students in 2014, the most prominent individual held so far in the notorious case that has haunted the country ever since.

Jesús Murillo was arrested at his home in Mexico City home on Friday on charges of forced disappearance, torture and obstruction of justice in the abduction and disappearance of the student-teachers in the south-western state of Guerrero, now seen as a “state-sponsored crime”.

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Canada zoo finds escaped wolf pups in moment of joy tinged with tragedy

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Four days after a ‘suspicious’ break-in, one pup is found safe and another appears to have been hit by a car

Emotions are bittersweet at a Canadian zoo after a runaway wolf pup was safely located after four days on the loose, but another was found dead along a road.

Conservation officers and zoo staff in Canada have spent the last four days searching for a runaway wolf after mysterious break-in freed a pack of the predators from the popular zoo.

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Trudeau nominates Indigenous woman to Canada’s supreme court

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Michelle O’Bonsawin’s appointment to the court would address longstanding criticism over lack of First Nations representation

Justin Trudeau has nominated an Indigenous woman to Canada’s supreme court, in a landmark appointment after decades of criticism over a lack of Indigenous representation on the country’s highest court.

The prime minister announced on Friday that Michelle O’Bonsawin had been selected to fill an upcoming vacancy on the court.

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Nicaraguan bishop arrested after two-week standoff at Matagalpa residence

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Rolando Álvarez and eight others in custody after latest clash between President Daniel Ortega and Catholic church

Heavily armed Nicaraguan police have arrested a bishop who is an outspoken critic of President Daniel Ortega’s government, launching a raid after a two-week standoff at his residence in the latest blow against the Roman Catholic church in the country.

Rolando Álvarez, the bishop of Matagalpa, was detained early on Friday, along with eight others – including several priests – who had been holed up for two weeks after police blocked the bishop from reaching the city’s cathedral to celebrate a mass.

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Lisa LaFlamme dropped as Canada TV anchor after going grey

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Award-winning host of CTV National News ‘shocked and saddened’ by termination as company blames ‘changing viewer habits’

Allegations that a popular television news anchor in Canada lost her job after “going grey” have prompted anger and disbelief, casting one of the country’s largest media organisations into turmoil and highlighting the rigid expectations facing women in the workforce.

In a two-minute video posted on Twitter on Monday, Lisa LaFlamme announced she had been ousted as anchor of CTV National News, one of the country’s most-watched evening shows.

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Leading grain traders ‘sourcing soy beans from Brazilian farm linked to abuse’

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Bunge and Cargill, behind more than 30% of soy exports to EU and UK, accused of exposing suppliers to link with indigenous rights violations

Two of the world’s biggest grain traders are sourcing soy from a Brazilian farm linked to abuses of indigenous rights and land, a report from the environmental group Earthsight claims

Earthsight named the companies as Bunge and Cargill and said they sourced soy produced on a farm located on ancestral land of the Kaiowá indigenous group.

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Canada conservation officers seek runaway wolf days after zoo break-in

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The Greater Vancouver Zoo revealed a pack of grey wolves had escaped after ‘suspicious’ damage to the fence of their enclosure

Conservation officers in Canada are searching for a runaway wolf three days after a mysterious break-in freed a pack of the predators from a popular zoo.

The Greater Vancouver Zoo announced on Tuesday morning it would not open to crowds that day, and later acknowledged that a pack of grey wolves had escaped after “suspicious” damage to the fence of their enclosure. The zoo said the incident was probably the result of “malicious intent”.

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Police call for Bolsonaro to be charged for spreading Covid misinformation

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Brazil’s federal police ask supreme court to charge president over bogus claims in October 2021 social media broadcast

Brazilian federal police have called for President Jair Bolsonaro to be charged with spreading fake information about a coronavirus outbreak that has killed more than 680,000 of his citizens, including bogus claims of a link between Aids and Covid vaccines.

Bolsonaro’s anti-scientific response to a disease he called “a bit of a cold” has been internationally condemned and the subject of a congressional inquiry in which the far-right populist was accused of deliberately delaying vaccine purchases and promoting quack “cures” such as hydroxychloroquine.

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Mexico’s citizens caught in crossfire as cartels launch attacks across the country

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Brazen strikes by organised crime leaders have left bystanders killed as many question the president’s security policies

For Carlos Holguín it was supposed to be just another day of toil.

After leaving the factory where he works morning shifts in the Mexican border city of Ciudad Juárez, the 24-year-old began his nightly routine last Thursday as a food app delivery driver.

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Journalist found dead in northern Mexico in bloody year for media

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Body of Juan Arjón López, 14th journalist to be killed in Mexico in 2022, identified by tattoos in border city of San Luis Río Colorado

An independent journalist has been found dead in northern Mexico, bringing to 14 the number of reporters and media workers killed so far this year, which has been one of the deadliest ever for the profession.

Prosecutors in the northern border state of Sonora said on Tuesday that tattoos on a body found in the border city of San Luis Río Colorado matched those of journalist Juan Arjón López.

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Lula says Bolsonaro ‘possessed by devil’ as he launches Brazil election campaign

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Leftwing frontrunner counters far-right president’s efforts to demonize him with evangelical voters in bitterly divided country

Brazil’s former president Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva has formally launched his campaign to reclaim the presidency with a ferocious broadside against his rival, Jair Bolsonaro, who he claimed was “possessed by the devil”.

Lula’s rebuke came on the first official day of campaigning before Brazil’s October election when 156.5 million citizens will choose the next leader of a bitterly divided nation.

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US issues western water cuts as drought leaves Colorado River near ‘tipping point’

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Arizona, Nevada and Mexico affected as federal government steps in after states failed to reach agreement

After western US states failed to reach agreements to reduce water use from the beleaguered Colorado River, the federal government stepped in on Tuesday, issuing cuts that will affect two states and Mexico.

Officials with the Bureau of Reclamation declared a “tier 2” shortage in the river basin as the drought continues to pummel the American west, pushing its largest reservoirs to new lows. The waning water levels, which have left dramatic bathtub rings in reservoirs and unearthed buried bodies and other artifacts, continue to threaten hydroelectric power production, drinking water, and agricultural production.

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Cuban doctor among three shot dead at hospital in Mexico

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Doctor killed along with a nurse and another woman at a hospital in the suburb of Ecatepec, on the outskirts of Mexico City

A Cuban doctor has been shot dead at a hospital in a rough neighborhood on the outskirts of Mexico City, prosecutors in the state of Mexico confirmed late on Monday.

The doctor, whose name was not provided, was killed on Friday along with a nurse and another woman at a hospital in the suburb of Ecatepec.

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Brazil’s presidential campaign launches amid fears of violence and upheaval

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Far-right president Jair Bolsonaro is trailing in the polls and has hinted he will not cede power if defeated

Campaigning in Brazil’s most important election for years formally gets under way this week amid fears of political violence on the campaign trail and possible turmoil before and after the October ballots.

Far-right president Jair Bolsonaro is trailing in the polls and has hinted he will not give up power if defeated by the leftist frontrunner and former president Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva.

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Ecuador city declares state of emergency amid dramatic rise in gang bombings

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Gangs in Guayaquil use increasingly violent tactics in battle for dominance of cocaine trafficking routes to Europe and the US

Ecuador’s embattled president, Guillermo Lasso, has declared a fourth state of emergency in the violence-racked city of Guayaquil after a deadly bomb attack killed at least five and injured 17 people.

Ecuador’s interior minister, Patricio Carrillo, described Sunday’s explosion as a “declaration of war on the state” by organised crime in the country’s largest city and it has been classified as a terrorist act. Security forces will be mobilised for a month and allowed to make home inspections.

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Grenadian minister Simon Stiell to be next UN climate chief

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Grenada’s environment minister faces task of getting countries back on track to meet climate goals ahead of Cop27

The next UN climate chief will be Simon Stiell, the environment minister of Grenada, a surprise appointment that will cement the importance of holding global temperature rises to 1.5C.

Stiell will face the task of putting countries back on track to meet international climate goals at a time of rising geopolitical tensions and a global energy price crisis.

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Colombian government and ELN rebels meet in Havana to restart peace talks

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Government pledges ‘judicial and political steps’ to enable talks to resume with nation’s last guerrillas broken off three years ago

Colombia’s new government and members of the nation’s last guerrilla group have taken steps towards restarting peace talks that were suspended three years ago in Cuba.

Newly elected President Gustavo Petro, a former member of the M-19 guerrilla group, has promised to establish “total peace” in Colombia and sent a high-level delegation to Cuba this week to meet with National Liberation Army (ELN) representatives there.

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Mexico prison cartel clash spills on to streets of border city leaving 11 dead

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Four radio station employees among dead as alleged gang members rampaged through Ciudad Juárez

A prison confrontation between members of two rival cartels spilled on to the streets of the border city Ciudad Juárez, where alleged gang members have killed nine more people, including four employees of a radio station.

The violence began on Thursday, when Los Chapos, members of the infamous Sinaloa cartel formerly led by Joaquín “El Chapo” Guzmán, clashed with the local group Los Mexicles, in a Juárez prison, the deputy security minister, Ricardo Mejía, said.

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Discovery of small armoured dinosaur in Argentina is first of its kind

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Jakapil kaniukura was about 5ft long and probably walked upright in then-steamy Patagonian landscape about 100m years ago

Palaeontologists have announced the discovery of a previously unknown small armoured dinosaur in southern Argentina, a creature that probably walked upright on its back legs roaming a then-steamy landscape about 100m years ago.

The Cretaceous period dinosaur, named Jakapil kaniukura, would have been well-protected with rows of bony disc-shaped armour along its neck and back and down to its tail, they said. It measured about 5ft (1.5 meters) long and weighed only 9-15lb (4-7kg), similar to an average house cat.

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