Category Archives: Americas

YouTube and Facebook letting Brazil election disinformation spread, NGO says

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Global Witness produced – and withdrew – purposely misleading ads that were all approved by YouTube, and half by Facebook

YouTube and Facebook are allowing disinformation to be spread about Brazil’s election campaign, adding to the bitterness in an already polarised and violent election, according to a new report by the human rights organisation Global Witness.

The NGO produced a series of purposely misleading ads during an election season that has been dominated by the bitter race between far-right incumbent Jair Bolsonaro and his leftist challenger, former president Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva.

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Bolivian gold miners push into national park despite country’s green rhetoric

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Mining co-ops – with oversize influence in the government – are moving into the Amazon’s Madidi national park

The footage is jerky, perhaps shot covertly. It shows a river running through a jungle: on the far side there is still thick forest, but the near bank is a mess of churned earth and muddy tracks – yet more evidence that gold miners have moved into the Madidi, Bolivia’s most famous national park.

Such mining provides a living for hundreds of thousands of people. But as miners push into the Amazon and other protected areas, the Bolivian government’s support of the industry sits awkwardly with its environmentalist rhetoric.

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Severe drought torments British Columbia, a year after devastating floods

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Lack of rainfall takes toll on Canada’s ‘wet coast’ as experts warn of further extreme weather events fueled by climate change

Nearly a year ago, flood waters inundated swaths of south-western British Columbia. Mudslides destroyed sections of highways and swollen, turbid rivers washed away houses and bridges.

Now, the region has the opposite problem: months of drought have begun to take a toll on what was once dubbed Canada’s “wet coast”.

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Group of over 100 migrants stranded by human smugglers on island by Puerto Rico

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Group including children and pregnant women became stranded while piled in yolas, rickety homemade boats smugglers use

US authorities are trying to rescue more than 100 migrants stranded on an uninhabited island near Puerto Rico during a human smuggling operation.

The nationality of the migrants awaiting help on Mona Island wasn’t immediately known, although officials believe the majority are Haitian, said Jeffrey Quiñones, spokesman for US Customs and Border Protection in Puerto Rico.

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Haiti on verge of collapse, NGOs warn as UN talks on restoring order continue

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Haitians currently facing series of crises that are becoming deadlier by the day with gangs, hunger and cholera outbreak

NGOs operating in Haiti warn that the chaos engulfing the country has become so total and the social fabric so torn that the country is on the verge of collapse, as discussions continue at the UN security council on how to restore order.

Haitians are currently facing a series of overlapping crises that are becoming deadlier by the day as heavily armed gangs continue to blockade the country’s principal port and fuel terminal.

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Brazil’s fearsome militias: mafia boom increases threat to democracy

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Rio’s heavily armed paramilitary groups have exploded in influence in recent years to wield power over dozens of communities

The theme from Mel Gibson’s Braveheart filled the air as the man accused of helping spawn Rio’s paramilitary mafia movement was lowered into the soils of a graveyard called the Garden of Longing. Fireworks exploded overhead.

“My brother was a noble man with a magnificent heart,” said the dead man’s sibling, Natalino Guimarães, as he and hundreds of mourners prepared to say their last goodbye.

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US and Mexico call for international force to break gangs’ stranglehold on Haiti

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Scheduled session brought forward in view of dire conditions – rampant gang violence, a cholera outbreak and escalating famine

The US and Mexico have proposed the deployment of a multinational force in Haiti to help break the stranglehold of gangs over the distribution of fuel, water and other basic goods.

Presenting a resolution at a special session of the UN security council on Monday, the US envoy to the UN, Linda Thomas-Greenfield, called for “a limited carefully-scoped non-UN mission led by a partner country with the deep, necessary experience”.

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Weather tracker: deadly rainstorm hits Crete

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At least two people dead on Greek island after torrential rain. Elsewhere, cold snap grips swathe of US

At least two people have been killed and more injured after torrential rain hit the popular holiday destination of Crete on Saturday morning. Heavy, thundery rain turned streets into rivers. The worst effects were felt in the Heraklion part of the island where there was huge damage. Cars were washed into the sea while beaches were covered in all sorts of debris, with the resort of Agia Pelagia on the north coast particularly affected.

An area of low pressure moving south-eastwards from Italy brought torrential downpours and thunderstorms to the island, which continued through the afternoon and evening in places before easing. Northern and eastern parts of the island received the highest rainfall totals, with 130mm recorded in 30 minutes and about 300mm seen within three hours.

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Lula brands Bolsonaro ‘tiny little dictator’ in Brazil TV debate

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Leftist challenger Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva calls incumbent Jair Bolsonaro a ‘shameless liar’ who ‘fooled around’ with Covid causing huge fatalities

The leftist frontrunner to become Brazil’s next president branded the far-right incumbent, Jair Bolsonaro, “a tiny little dictator” and “the king of fake news and stupidity” during a television debate that will help define the political future of one of the world’s biggest democracies.

Brazil’s former president Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, who nearly beat Bolsonaro in the presidential election’s first round in September, admonished his opponent over his handling of Covid and soaring Amazon deforestation during the feisty two-hour encounter.

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At least 20 killed and 14 injured in bus crash in Colombia

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TV images show bus flipping over between south-western cities of Pasto and Popayán

At least 20 people were killed and at least 14 injured after a bus crashed on a road in Colombia on Saturday, police said.

Images on Colombian television showed the bus flipping over in the early morning incident between the south-western cities of Pasto and Popayán, which authorities said may have been caused by a mechanical fault.

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Florida governor Ron DeSantis will fly migrants to Illinois and Delaware

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Spokesperson confirms plan to continue with immigration stunts which have attracted investigations and lawsuits

The Republican governor of Florida, Ron DeSantis, plans to continue flying undocumented migrants to Democratic strongholds, his spokeswoman said on Saturday, a day after released records showed the state paid nearly $1m to arrange two sets of flights to Delaware and Illinois.

Documents released on Friday showed that the planned flights will transport about 100 migrants. They were scheduled for before 3 October but were halted or postponed. The contractor hired by Florida extended the window for the trips until 1 December, according to memos released by the state transportation department.

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UK joins calls for World Bank reform to focus funding on climate crisis

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Alok Sharma’s intervention puts pressure on Trump-appointed Bank chief who faces calls to resign

The UK has joined calls for sweeping reforms to the World Bank, to focus much-needed funding on the climate crisis, saying that its current structures are not working.

The intervention from Alok Sharma, the current president of the UN climate talks, heaps further pressure on beleaguered World Bank chief, David Malpass. He has faced calls to resign over an apparently climate-dismissing stance, and the Bank’s perceived failures to deliver climate finance.

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Migrants targeted in Canadian immigration scam on Facebook

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Scammers posing as immigration lawyers targeted Facebook groups with tens of thousands of users, new report reveals

Scammers posing as Canadian immigration lawyers have targeted Facebook groups with tens of thousands of users, a new report reveals.

The posts, documented in a new report by the Tech Transparency Project (TTP), the research arm of watchdog group the Campaign for Accountability, have been flagged as potentially fraudulent by Latin American and Canadian authorities but continue to proliferate.

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Dismay as key cholera vaccine is discontinued

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Exclusive: halt to production of Shanchol vaccine alarms WHO amid ‘unprecedented’ global outbreaks

The manufacturer of one of only two cholera vaccines for use in humanitarian emergencies is to halt production at the end of this year, just as the world faces an “unprecedented” series of deadly outbreaks, the Guardian has learned.

Shantha Biotechnics, a wholly owned Indian subsidiary of the French pharmaceutical company Sanofi, will stop production of its Shanchol vaccine within months and cease supply by the end of 2023, causing alarm among health officials.

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Record numbers of people risking lives to cross Darién Gap to US

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More than 150,000 fleeing poverty have reached Panama so far this year in pursuit of American dream

The humanitarian crisis in Darién Gap has reached new heights as medical NGOs are overwhelmed by the record numbers of people risking their lives to cross the lawless strip of jungle in Latin America en route to the US.

An exodus of Venezuelans fleeing socioeconomic collapse has led to more people embarking on the perilous journey across the only land bridge connecting South and North America so far this year than in the entirety of 2021, Panamanian authorities say.

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Jamaica broadcasting regulator bans music and TV deemed to glorify crime

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Musicians criticise ban that includes ‘urban slang’ to do with making money or acquiring wealth

Jamaica’s broadcasting regulator has banned music and TV broadcasts deemed to glorify or promote criminal activity, violence, drug use, scamming and weapons.

The government has said the ban is meant to cut back on material that “could give the wrong impression that criminality is an accepted feature of Jamaican culture and society”.

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Thousands still without power weeks after Hurricane Fiona hit Puerto Rico

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High temperatures, rain and mosquitoes make life unbearable for those still affected by the longest blackout in US history

Alexis Robles has slept a mere three hours a night since Hurricane Fiona hit Puerto Rico on 18 September, causing a total blackout across the Caribbean island.

Robles, 52, a systems analyst in the seaside town of Cabo Rojo in south-west Puerto Rico, has been living without power for 25 days.

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Hockey Canada’s board and CEO resign amid fallout from sexual abuse scandal

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  • Ice hockey body had secret fund to deal with abuse allegations
  • Politicians and sponsors have attacked handling of claims

The head of Hockey Canada and its entire board of directors have resigned amid a growing scandal over how the sport’s governing body failed to address allegations of sexual assault.

On Tuesday morning, Hockey Canada announced its CEO, Scott Smith, was leaving the embattled organization.

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Manslaughter trial over 2009 Air France crash begins with cries of ‘shame’

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Anger as airline and Airbus plead not guilty to charge 13 years after flight AF447 crashed, killing 228 people

A manslaughter trial over the 2009 crash of Air France flight 447 has opened in Paris, with the courtroom falling silent as a judge read out the names of 228 passengers and crew who died in the airline’s worst ever accident.

The grief of the victims’ families quickly erupted into anger as the chief executives of Air France and Airbus pleaded not guilty to involuntary manslaughter and offered their condolences.

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El Paso struggles to house migrants after shelter closes as border crossings surge

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City’s new facility has to find shelters for those without alternative after a 40-year beacon of refuge shuttered earlier this year

Chairs and tables lined El Paso’s new Migrant Welcome Center in west Texas, where families who have crossed the US-Mexico border without immigration papers were meeting with volunteers and city employees, or making phone calls to loved ones elsewhere in the United States.

Children amused themselves in a designated play area, while their parents worked out where the next steps of their journey would take them and how they would get there.

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