Category Archives: Americas

Police say remains found in Brazilian Amazon belong to Dom Phillips

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Officials give confirmation after forensic tests, as police suggest killings were not carried out upon orders from organised crime

Forensic tests carried out on human remains found in the Brazilian Amazon have confirmed that they belonged to Dom Phillips, the British journalist who went missing with the Indigenous advocate Bruno Pereira.

Brazil’s federal police said late on Friday that it could “confirm that the remains of Dom Phillips are part of the [human] material” found on Wednesday after an 11-day search along the banks of the Itaquaí river. They had been buried in a densely forested area two hours from the nearest town.

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Monkey shot dead as Mexican cartels’ passion for exotic pets leaves bloody toll

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Spider monkey dressed up as gang mascot killed in shootout, and man dies in Michoacán after trying to pet captive tiger

Mexican narcos’ fascination with exotic animals has been on display this week after a spider monkey dressed up as a drug gang mascot was killed in a shootout, a 200kg tiger wandered the streets in the Pacific coast state of Nayarit, and a man died after trying to pet a captive tiger in a cartel-dominated area of western Michoacán state.

Eleven suspected gang members died in the shootout on Tuesday in the state of Mexico, which surrounds the capital. Photos from the scene showed a small monkey dressed in a tiny camouflage jacket and a tiny “bulletproof” vest sprawled across the body of a dead gunman.

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Canadian priest arrested for 1960s sexual assault at First Nations residential school

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Canadian government has admitted that physical and sexual assault at the schools was rampant and has apologized

Canadian police said they arrested a 92-year-old retired priest for a sexual assault more than 50 years ago at one of Canada’s residential schools for Indigenous children.

Sgt Paul Manaigre of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police said on Friday that police arrested retired Father Arthur Masse for the assault. Manaigre said the victim was 10 years old at the time and it happened between 1968 and 1970 at Ford Alexander residential school in Manitoba.

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In his own words: Dom Phillips’ reporting on Brazil and the Amazon

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Dom Phillips, whose death in the Amazon has shocked many, was a frequent contributor to the Guardian. Here are some of his outstanding pieces of journalism

Over some of the most tumultuous years in Brazil, Dom Phillips bore witness to the politics of his adopted home and to the fate of the Amazon rainforest. Travelling into the forest is a slow and laborious process, yet Phillips returned again and again.

Phillips wrote regularly for the Guardian and other publications. Here, we have collected some of his most outstanding pieces of journalism.

For more than a decade after the reserve was set up in 1998, its 16 uncontacted Indigenous tribes were among the best protected in Brazil. Yet today it is invaded on multiple fronts, leaving its isolated groups – who hunt with bows and arrows or blow-pipes, and avoid contact with modern society – at risk. Contact with outsiders can be deadly for these groups, who lack immunity to diseases like flu.

“The vulnerability of these peoples is growing,” Beto Marubo, a Javari Indigenous leader, told the United Nations permanent forum on indigenous issues in New York in April. “There is no effective protection.”

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Police losing narco war in deadly Amazon region where duo disappeared

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A key police outpost lies in ruins after a daring raid – a sign of the growing danger on an increasingly lucrative smuggling route

In the crime-infested tri-border region where Dom Phillips and Bruno Pereira disappeared, rumours abound over what happened at Puerto Amelia in January this year.

Were Brazilian drug traffickers responsible for burning the Peruvian police outpost on the River Yavarí to the ground?

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‘Heartbroken’: family pay tribute to Dom Phillips and Bruno Pereira

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Colleagues call for journalist and Indigenous activist’s work to be inspiration to others

The family of Dom Phillips have spoken of their heartbreak over the murder of the British journalist and the Indigenous activist Bruno Pereira as colleagues called for the men’s work to be an inspiration to others.

In a statement issued on behalf of Phillips’ sister Sian, his brother Gareth, and their partners and children, the family offered thanks to those who had taken part in the 10-day search.

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Colombian mayor who called Hitler ‘great German thinker’ could be country’s next president

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TikTok using, elite-bashing, Hitler-praising candidate revels in his unruly behavior yet is now tied with his leftist opponent

When John Claro, an opposition councillor in the Colombian city of Bucaramanga, had a disagreement with the local mayor over a colleague’s misconduct, he was left with a red face and a ringing in his ear.

In a video of the incident, the mayor can be seen quickly losing his temper, rising to his feet and unleashing a stream of profanities. Then, he steps forward, and slaps Claro hard in the face.

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Dom Phillips and Bruno Pereira: Brazil police find two bodies in search for missing men

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Police chief says one of the men arrested in connection with the pair’s disappearance had confessed to killing them

Police in the Brazilian Amazon have found the bodies of two men in the area close to where British journalist Dom Phillips and Indigenous activist Bruno Pereira went missing 10 days ago.

At a press briefing late on Wednesday, regional police chief Eduardo Fontes said one of the two men arrested in connection with the pair’s disappearance had confessed to killing them.

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Canada charges ex-general fighting in Ukraine with sexual assault

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Retired Lt Col Trevor Cadieu preparing to return home to face two charges relating to alleged incidents in 1994 when he was a cadet

A former Canadian general who reportedly went to Ukraine to fight Russian invaders has been charged back home in Canada with sexual assault, after a months-long investigation.

Retired Lt Gen Trevor Cadieu faces two counts of sexual assault that relate to alleged incidents at Canada’s Royal Military College in Kingston, Ontario in 1994 when he was a cadet, the office of the Canadian Forces Provost Marshal said in a statement.

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Toronto police chief apologizes to people of color over disproportionate use of force

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Black people are 2.2 times more likely to have a police interaction and 1.6 times more likely to have force used on them, police statistics show

Black, indigenous and other racialized communities have faced disproportionate use-of-force and strip searches by Toronto police, chief James Ramer said on Wednesday, as he apologized and promised to address systemic racism in the department.

“As an organization we have not done enough to ensure that every person in our city receives fair and unbiased policing and for this, as chief of police and on behalf of the service, I am sorry and I apologize unreservedly,” Ramer said.

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‘Deep concern’ over fate of Dom Phillips in Brazil, says Boris Johnson

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Prime minister says UK government will provide any support needed after journalist’s disappearance in Amazon

Boris Johnson has said the UK government is “deeply concerned” about the circumstances surrounding the disappearance of the British journalist Dom Phillips, after Theresa May called on the prime minister to make the case “a diplomatic priority”.

May raised Phillips’s case during prime minister’s questions, citing correspondence with Phillips’ niece Dominique Davis, one of her constituents. Johnson said the UK had offered to provide support to Brazilian search teams looking for Phillips and his travelling partner, Bruno Pereira, an Indigenous expert.

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Dom Phillips and Bruno Pereira: police in Brazil arrest second man for ‘alleged murder’

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Suspect is brother of first person held by police over disappearance of the British journalist and indigenous activist

Police in Brazil say they have arrested a second man in connection with “the alleged murder” of the British journalist Dom Phillips and the Brazilian Indigenous defender Bruno Pereira.

Oseney da Costa de Oliveira, 41, was arrested on Tuesday and is being held in Atalaia do Norte, the isolated river town Phillips and Pereira were trying to reach when they vanished on Sunday 5 June.

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Brazil Indigenous agency staff strike over Bruno Pereira disappearance

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Employees walk off the job amid anger over statements criticising the former Funai employee who went missing with Dom Phillips

Employees with Brazil’s national Indigenous foundation (Funai) have launched a one-day strike, amid anger over what they say is the dismantling of a key government agency and official statements criticising Bruno Pereira, the former Funai employee who went missing along with the British journalist Dom Phillips last week.

Funai staff and related civil service employees walked off the job at 9am on Tuesday in Brasília, Florianópolis and Dourados, and others are voting on whether to launch a wider strike next week, officials with the unions said.

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Brazil envoy apologises to Dom Phillips’ family for saying bodies had been found

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Ambassador ‘deeply sorry’ for ‘information that did not prove correct’ as search continues for missing journalist and colleague

The Brazilian ambassador to the UK has apologised to the family of Dom Phillips for incorrectly telling them his body had been found in the Amazon along with that of his missing travelling partner Bruno Pereira.

On Monday morning an embassy official called Phillips’s brother-in-law and sister to inform them that the bodies of the British journalist and Brazilian Indigenous expert had been found tied to a tree, one week after the pair vanished on the River Itaquaí.

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Canada and Denmark end decades-long dispute over barren rock in Arctic

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Hans Island ‘whisky war’ – described by some as a ‘pseudo-confrontation’ – ends after formal division agreed

It has been described by some as a “pseudo-confrontation”, and by others as a diplomatic afterthought. Now, however, the so-called “whisky war”, which was never really a conflict at all, has finally been resolved with the formal division of a tiny barren Arctic island between Canada and Denmark.

Sitting in the Kennedy Channel of Nares Strait between the north-western coast of the semi-autonomous Danish territory of Greenland and Canada’s Ellesmere Island, the uninhabited half-mile-square Hans Island has no mineral resources nor much else of interest unless you are a visiting seabird.

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Canada air crew caught up in ‘hellish’ Dominican Republic drugs bust begs for repatriation

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Five-member crew was detained after they found a bag of cocaine on 5 April and spent nine days in jail in a ‘hellish situation’

A five-person Canadian airline crew caught up in a drug-trafficking investigation is begging their government to repatriate them after two months trapped in the Dominican Republic.

“It’s absolutely horrendous – terrible, terrible stuff we’re going through,” said captain Robert Di Venanzo, who said he and his crew could be held for up to a year while an investigation proceeds.

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‘Incel’ who killed 11 in Toronto van murders sentenced to life in prison

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Witnesses at Monday hearing describe devastation from 2018 attack in which Alek Minassian ploughed rented van into sidewalk

A self-described “incel” who killed 11 people when he plowed a rented van into a busy Toronto sidewalk in 2018 has been sentenced to life in prison.

Alek Minassian – who was motivated by a hatred of women – was convicted in March of 10 counts of first-degree murder and 16 counts of attempted murder, after a judge found that he drove a white rental van on to the sidewalk with the intent to kill.

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Bolsonaro says ‘something wicked’ done to Dom Phillips and Bruno Pereira

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Brazil president comments on journalist and Indigenous expert’s fate amid unconfirmed claims bodies have been found in Amazon

The Brazilian president, Jair Bolsonaro, has said he believes “something wicked” was done to the missing British journalist Dom Phillips and the Brazilian Indigenous expert Bruno Pereira, amid unconfirmed claims their bodies had been found in the Amazon.

British relatives of Phillips said they had been contacted by the Brazilian embassy in London on Monday morning and informed that two unidentified bodies had been found during the search operation.

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Allergies in overdrive as extreme weather drives higher pollen count

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Trees and grass are emitting more pollen than usual, scientists say – and it’s likely to stay that way in the coming years

First, he had the symptoms. Then he saw the yellow fog. A thin layer of gold-coloured dust coated the patio furniture, the patio, his children’s swing set – everything in the garden of Ubaka Ogbogu’s home in the Canadian city of Edmonton.

“The mist was everywhere. Even my kids – who are not typically observant about these things – remarked about this yellow everywhere,” he said.

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Items belonging to Dom Phillips and Bruno Pereira found in Amazon

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Clothing and backpack belonging to the missing British journalist and Indigenous expert found by small but determined search team

Personal items belonging to the British journalist Dom Phillips and Brazilian Indigenous expert Bruno Pereira have been found in an area of flooded forest near the Amazonian river on which they were last seen.

The objects were discovered on Saturday thanks to a small but determined Indigenous search team that has spent the past seven days on the frontline of the hunt for the two missing men who had both, in different ways, championed the Indigenous cause.

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