Category Archives: Americas

Brazil: killing of Lula’s party treasurer raises fears of violent run-up to election

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Marcelo de Arruda was shot at his birthday party by a supporter of President Bolsonaro

Brazilian political leaders called for calm this week after the killing of a Workers’ party member prompted fears that political violence in the polarised nation will erupt in the run-up to October’s presidential election.

Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, the leftwing former president and Workers’ party leader who is currently leading the polls for the ballot on 2 October, sent his condolences to the family of the dead man, who belonged to his party, and called for “dialogue, tolerance and peace”.

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Man acquitted of bombing 1985 Air India plane shot dead in Canada

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Ripudaman Singh Malik, 70, was accused of being a part of the worst terror attack in Canadian history in which 329 people died

A man acquitted over the bombing of a 1985 Air India flight from Montreal to Mumbai has been killed in Canada, in what police believe was a targeted shooting.

The family of Ripudaman Singh Malik confirmed the 70-year-old was shot and killed Thursday morning in front of his clothing import business.

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Ex-boyfriend charged over Elnaz Hajtamiri kidnapping in Ontario

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Police arrest Mohamad Lilo after frustrating six-month investigation into abduction by ‘fake officers’

Canadian police have arrested and charged a man in a kidnapping case that has baffled investigators for months and produced few leads.

Mohamad Lilo, an ex-boyfriend and former business partner of Elnaz Hajtamiri, was charged with her kidnapping, six months after she was abducted by men dressed as police officers.

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John Bolton says he ‘helped plan coups d’etat’ in other countries

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Former national security adviser to Donald Trump says US Capitol attack was not a coup because it was not carefully planned

John Bolton, a former national security adviser to Donald Trump and before that ambassador to the United Nations under George W Bush, said on Tuesday he helped plan coup attempts in other countries.

Speaking to CNN after the day’s January 6 committee hearing, Bolton said it was wrong to describe Trump’s attempt to stay in power after the 2020 election as a coup.

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‘Extinct’ parrots make a flying comeback in Brazil

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The Spix macaw, a bird that had once vanished in the wild, is now thriving in its South American homeland after a successful breeding programme

Twenty years ago, the future of the Spix’s macaw could not have looked bleaker. The last member of this distinctive parrot species disappeared from the wild, leaving only a few dozen birds in collectors’ cages across the globe. The prospects for Cyanopsitta spixii were grim, to say the least.

But thanks to a remarkable international rescue project, Spix’s macaws – with their grey heads and vivid blue plumage – have made a stunning comeback. A flock now soars freely over its old homeland in Brazil after being released there a month ago. Later this year, conservationists plan to release more birds, and hope the parrots will start breeding in the wild next spring.

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Canada exempts Russian gas turbine from sanctions amid Europe energy crisis

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Ottawa defies Ukraine’s objections to return of equipment for Nord Stream 1 pipeline, saying it needs to support Europe’s access to ‘reliable and affordable energy’

Canada will return a repaired Russian turbine to Germany that it needs for the Nord Stream 1 gas pipeline, despite objections from Ukraine, as the sanctions regime came up against the energy crisis sparked by the war.

Canada’s minister of natural resources, Jonathan Wilkinson, said in a statement on Saturday the government was issuing a “time-limited and revocable permit” to exempt the return of turbines from its Russian sanctions, to support “Europe’s ability to access reliable and affordable energy as they continue to transition away from Russian oil and gas”.

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Man linked to killing of Dom Phillips and Bruno Pereira arrested over fake ID

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Rubens Villar Coelho ‘produced a fake Brazilian ID’ to investigating officer and had other aliases in Peru and Colombia

Police have arrested a man linked to the killing of British journalist Dom Phillips and Brazilian indigenous advocate Bruno Pereira but officials in the Amazonian city of Manaus warned his detention has not yet produced any evidence he is implicated in the 5 June murders.

Media in the area around Brazil’s border with Peru and Colombia where the couple went missing named Rubens Villar Coelho as a possible suspect in the case that brought global attention to the remote Amazonian region last month.

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Massive network outage in Canada hits homes, ATMs and 911 emergency lines

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Rogers, which dominates mobile and internet market, says teams working to restore service amid widespread disruptions

A major outage of mobile and internet networks caused widespread disruptions across Canada on Friday, affecting banks, police emergency lines and customers in the second outage to hit one of the country’s biggest telecom providers in 15 months.

Customers gathered at coffee shops and public libraries to access alternate networks, while financial institutions reported problems with everything from automated machines to cashless payment systems.

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Victims of Brazil’s worst environmental disaster to get day in UK courts

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Court of appeal judgment allows £5bn lawsuit against mining giant BHP by more than 200,000 victims of 2015 Mariana dam disaster

More than 200,000 victims of Brazil’s worst environmental disaster will have their case heard in a UK court, making it the largest group claim in English legal history.

The lawsuit is against the Anglo-Australian mining company BHP – one of the biggest companies in the world – for their involvement in the collapse of the Mariana dam in 2015, which released toxic mining waste down 400 miles (640km) of waterways along the Doce River. Claimants are seeking at least £5bn ($6bn) in compensation.

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Brazil: Boris Johnson’s fall met with hope and humour by foes of Bolsonaro

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UK prime minister’s fellow populist is facing a tough re-election fight in October against former president Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva

Tremors from the political earthquake that shook the United Kingdom have reached Brazil, where the left is hoping the demise of a British populist leader presages the downfall of their own far-right authoritarian.

Boris Johnson’s political collapse was met with a mixture of hope and humour, with Ciro Gomes, one of the presidential candidates in October’s Brazilian election, describing the leaders of both nations in similar terms.

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Wild species support half of world’s population, report finds

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Sustainability is key to survival of billions of people, says UN study, which notes income from wild species incentivises conservation

• Patrick Vallance: ‘We need to change if we’re to survive’

Wild plants, animals, fungi and algae support half of the world’s population but their future use is threatened by overexploitation, according to a new assessment by leading scientists.

From the 10,000 known wild species that humans harvest for food to the firewood that one in three people need for cooking, nature is key to the livelihoods and survival of billions of people in developed and developing countries, says a new UN report.

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‘Asleep at the wheel’: Canada police’s spyware admission raises alarm

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Experts warn that RCMP document detailing covert surveillance of Canadians’ mobile devices highlights lax government oversight

An admission from Canada’s national police force that it routinely uses powerful spyware to surveil citizens has prompted concern from experts, who warn the country is “asleep at the wheel” when it comes to regulating and reining in use of the technology.

During a parliamentary session in late June, the Royal Canadian Mounted Police submitted a document, first reported in Politico, outlining how a special investigative team covertly infiltrates the mobile devices of Canadians. The tools, which have been used on at least 10 investigations between 2018 and 2020, give the police access to text messages, email, photos, videos, audio files, calendar entries and financial records. The software can also remotely turn on the camera and microphone of a suspect’s phone or laptop.

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Ukrainian diaspora urges Trudeau not to return turbine to Russia

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Moscow says equipment, which was being repaired in Canada, was crucial to restore gas supplies to Germany

Canada’s Ukrainian community has urged the prime minister, Justin Trudeau, to refuse to compromise the country’s sanctions against Russia in order to return a turbine that Moscow says is critical for supplying natural gas to Germany.

Russia’s state-controlled Gazprom cut the capacity along the Nord Stream 1 pipeline to just 40% of usual levels last month, citing the delayed return of equipment being serviced by Germany’s Siemens Energy in Canada.

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Canadian swimmer says she was drugged at world championship event

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Mary-Sophie Harvey says a ‘four-to-six hour window where I can’t recall a single thing’ left her with a concussion and rib sprain

A Canadian swimmer has said she was drugged at a recent world championship event in Budapest, leaving her with a concussion and rib sprain.

Mary-Sophie Harvey said on her Instagram account that she was drugged on the final night while celebrating in the Hungarian capital and that there was a “four-to-six-hour window where I can’t recall a single thing”.

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Venezuela Indigenous leader’s killing terrifies defenders of Amazon lands

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Virgilio Trujillo Arana, who led community defense from criminal groups and illegal mining, was gunned down in broad daylight

Virgilio Trujillo Arana knew that he was risking his life by defending the Amazon lands on which his Indigenous Uwottuja community had lived for centuries.

“Whatever happens, happens,” he said, in a video recorded before his death. “[But] without land, we disappear. That’s why we defend our territories.”

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Woman set on fire in Toronto bus attack dies from her injuries

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Woman in her 20s was assaulted by another passenger in a suspected hate crime last month

A Toronto woman who was set on fire last month on a public bus in a suspected hate crime has died of her injuries, police say.

On 17 June, a woman in her 20s who was travelling to her job as a caregiver, was sitting on an idling bus in the city’s west end when she was assaulted by another passenger.

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Indian director receives threats over film poster of goddess with Pride flag

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Police open cases against Leena Manimekalai for ‘hurting religious sentiments’ with short film Kaali

An Indian film director is facing police investigation over the poster for her new film, which depicts the Hindu goddess Kaali smoking a cigarette and clutching an LGBTQ+ flag.

Leena Manimekalai, an Indian film-maker based in Canada, has received thousands of threats of violence after the poster for her short film Kaali, which was aired in the Canadian city of Toronto at the weekend, went viral on social media.

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Toronto: Sikh guards fired or demoted over ‘humiliating’ facial hair policy

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Staff at homeless shelters required to be ‘clean-shaven’ to ensure N95 masks fit but for Sikh facial hair is key expression of faith

More than one hundred Sikh security guards in Toronto have lost their jobs or been demoted after refusing to cut their beards in order to wear a face mask, highlighting a city policy that critics describe as discriminatory and “humiliating”.

Under Toronto’s current rules, staff at homeless shelters and other congregate settings must wear a N95 respirator when exposed to people with Covid-19 or during suspected outbreaks.

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Twin brothers named as armed robbers killed in Canada bank heist

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Heavily armed 22-year-olds died in shootout that left six police officers injured in Saanich, British Columbia

Police in Canada have identified the heavily armed culprits of a brazen bank robbery last week as twin brothers whose social media posts showed an obsession with guns and fears of government “tyranny”, and an interest in infamous bank heists.

On Saturday, police identified Mathew and Isaac Auchterlonie, 22, as the two men killed after they attempted to rob a bank in the municipality of Saanich, British Columbia.

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Bolsonaro’s ‘surrender of Amazon to crooks played role in murders of Phillips and Pereira’

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Brazilian president’s dismantling of environmental safeguards partly to blame, says politician leading inquiry

Jair Bolsonaro’s demolition of Brazil’s Indigenous and environmental protection services and “surrender of the Amazon to crooks” played a direct role in the murders of Dom Phillips and Bruno Pereira, the politician leading a congressional inquiry into the crime has claimed.

One month after the British journalist and Brazilian Indigenous advocate were killed on the River Itaquaí, three men are in custody: two local fishermen and a third man called Jeferson da Silva Lima.

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