Category Archives: Americas

Fire spreads at Cuba oil storage facility as fourth tank erupts

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The blaze in Matanzas province raises fears that the damaged facility will worsen the island’s energy shortage

Flames have engulfed a fourth tank at an oil storage facility in western Cuba as a raging fire consumes critical fuel supplies on an island grappling with a growing energy crisis.

Firefighters and specialists from Mexico and Venezuela helped fight the blaze in the province of Matanzas with boats, planes and helicopters as they sprayed foam on the containers, a first for crews since broiling temperatures had prevented them from doing so earlier.

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WHO stresses monkeypox surge not linked to monkeys amid attack reports

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World Health Organization issues statement after reports of animals being poisoned in Brazil

The World Health Organization has stressed that monkeypox outbreaks are not linked to monkeys, following a number of reported attacks on the primates in Brazil.

“What people need to know is that the transmission we are seeing is happening between humans,” a WHO spokesperson, Margaret Harris, told reporters in Geneva on Tuesday.

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Spyware is huge threat to global human rights and democracy, expert warns

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Cybersecurity expert Ron Deibert to testify to Canadian MPs about troubling spread of invasive surveillance tools

The mercenary spyware industry represents “one of the greatest contemporary threats to civil society, human rights and democracy”, a leading cybersecurity expert warns, as countries grapple with the unregulated spread of powerful and invasive surveillance tools.

Ron Deibert, a political science professor at the university of Toronto and head of Citizen Lab, will testify in front of a Canadian parliamentary committee on Tuesday afternoon about the growing threat he and others believe the technology poses to citizens and democracies.

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Colombian narco militia seeks peace talks after calling ‘unilateral’ ceasefire

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Feared Gulf Clan has unleashed terror campaign since arrest of leader in May but keen to talk to leftist president Gustavo Petro

One of Colombia’s most feared armed groups has announced a “unilateral” ceasefire in the hopes of entering peace talks with the government of Colombia’s new leftist leader, Gustavo Petro.

The Gulf Clan, a notorious drug-trafficking militia, has unleashed a campaign of terror following the May extradition to the US of its leader – Dairo Antonio Úsuga, or “Otoniel”, assassinating dozens of police and holding large swaths of the country hostage.

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Cuba: third oil tank ignites as firefighters struggle to extinguish blaze

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Mexico and Venezuela send crews to fight fire that has killed at least one and injured 125, with dozens of firefighters still missing

A deadly fire that began at Cuba’s main oil terminal in Matanzas has spread after a third crude tank caught fire and collapsed as firefighters struggled to fight the massive blaze.

At least one person has died and 125 are injured, with dozens of firefighters reported missing ever since lighting struck one of the facility’s eight tanks on Friday night. A second tank caught fire on Saturday, triggering several explosions at the facility, which plays a key part in Cuba’s electric system.

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Canadian province declares emergency amid worst wildfires in over 50 years

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Blazes have consumed vast tracts of forest in Newfoundland and Labrador and remain out of control

Officials in Canada’s easternmost province have issued a state of emergency as crews battle the worst wildfires the region has experienced in more than half a century.

Sprawling blazes have consumed thousands of hectares of forest in Newfoundland and Labrador over the last two weeks and remain out of control.

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‘Like a scene out of Jaws’: British boy attacked by sharks in Bahamas

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Finley Downer, eight, bitten on both legs by nurse sharks at Compass Cay before being pulled to safety

An eight-year-old British boy has been attacked by sharks while on holiday in the Bahamas.

Finley Downer was surrounded by three nurse sharks while swimming in a lagoon last week, his family said, before he was pulled to safety after suffering bites on both legs.

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Colombia’s first leftist president says war on drugs has failed

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At his swearing in Gustavo Petro, a former guerrilla, says the country is getting a ‘second chance’ to tackle violence and poverty

Colombia’s first leftist president has been sworn into office, promising to fight inequality and bring peace to a country long haunted by bloody feuds between the government, drug traffickers and rebel groups.

Gustavo Petro, a former member of Colombia’s M-19 guerrilla group, won the presidential election in June by beating conservative parties that offered moderate changes to the market-friendly economy, but failed to connect with voters frustrated by rising poverty and violence against human rights leaders and environmental groups in rural areas.

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Fire in Cuban oil depot leaves 121 injured and 17 firefighters missing

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Body found after 800 people evacuated as smoke billows towards Havana following lightning strike at Matanzas supertanker base

Fire started by a lightning strike has engulfed an oil storage facility in the Cuban city of Matanzas, setting off explosions and injuring 121 people. Seventeen firefighters were missing and one body had been found, Cuban authorities said.

The blaze at the Matanzas supertanker base began during a thunderstorm on Friday night, the ministry of energy and mines tweeted. The government said later that it had asked for help from international experts in “friendly countries” with experience in the oil sector.

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Five more people arrested in Brazil over murders of Dom Phillips and Bruno Pereira

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A suspect already in custody likely leader of illegal fishing mafia based in Amazon region, police say

Brazilian police arrested another five people in connection with the murders of British journalist Dom Phillips and Brazilian Indigenous activist Bruno Pereira on Saturday, and said one of the suspects already in custody was likely the leader of an illegal fishing mafia based in the Amazon region.

Although they gave few details, police said three of those detained in operations near Brazil’s borders with Peru and Colombia were wanted for helping bury the bodies of Phillips and Pereira.

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The 23-year-old fashion designer dressing Colombia’s first black female vice-president

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When Francia Márquez became the South American country’s VP elect, she chose the unknown Esteban Sinisterra Paz to create her outfits

Esteban Sinisterra Paz, a 23-year-old fashion designer from Colombia’s conflict-ridden and impoverished Pacific region, had not long started his career when he received a call from a history-making client.

Francia Márquez – the renowned environmental activist and Colombia’s first black female vice-president-elect – was on the line, and she wanted two outfits made.

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Rare hummingbird last seen in 2010 rediscovered in Colombia

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Birdwatcher ‘overcome with emotion’ on spotting the Santa Marta sabrewing, only third time it has been documented

A rare hummingbird has been rediscovered by a birdwatcher in Colombia after going missing for more than a decade.

The Santa Marta sabrewing, a large hummingbird only found in Colombia’s Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta mountains, was last seen in 2010 and scientists feared the species might be extinct as the tropical forests it inhabited have largely been cleared for agriculture.

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Weather tracker: regions across world still reeling from an extreme July

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From US floods to drought in France, communities around globe are still feeling effects of July’s extreme weather

Central US states are still reeling from a week of extreme flooding events in the final days of July. Initially, the extreme rainfall into St Louis gave a quarter of the normal annual rainfall in just 12 hours, according to the National Weather Service (NWS). A few days later, in eastern Kentucky, at least 10-12 inches (about 25-30cm) fell in the space of a few days, causing devastating flooding in the Appalachian region of the state.

The complex, numerous and steep valleys in the region enabled rainwater to quickly run down valley sides and build up on the limited and often built-up floodplains. Deforestation and historic mining activity in the region have also been mentioned as potential contributors. Both flooding events have been classified as one in 1,000-year events by the NWS.

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Border wall that threatened historic US-Mexico Friendship park halted

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The Biden administration agreed to pause plans that would have destroyed a 51-year-old oceanfront park

The Biden administration has agreed to pause plans for a double border wall that critics say would effectively destroy a 51-year-old oceanfront park that symbolizes friendship between the United States and Mexico.

Chris Magnus, the US Customs and Border Protection commissioner, said he wanted to hear community concerns before settling on a wall design for Friendship Park, which then-first lady Pat Nixon inaugurated in 1971.

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Commonwealth Games must do more for LGBT rights, says former swimmer

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Michael Gunning calls for event to push for change after a ‘petrifying’ visit to his home country, Jamaica

The former Team GB swimmer Michael Gunning has called on the Commonwealth Games to do more to help improve LGBTQ+ rights in member countries as he talked of his “petrifying” experience visiting his home country, Jamaica, for the first time since he came out as gay.

Gunning, who retired from swimming earlier this year to help promote equality in sport, said the event could do more on the global stage to push the issue.

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Magnolia species lost to science for 97 years rediscovered in Haiti

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Conservationists find native magnolia for first time since 1925 after original habitat destroyed by deforestation

A conservation team has rediscovered a native magnolia tree in a forest in Haiti for the first time since it was lost to science in 1925.

Boasting pure white flowers and uniquely shaped leaves, the northern Haiti magnolia (Magnolia emarginata) was found originally in the forest of Morne Colombo, which has since been destroyed by deforestation. It was considered endangered and featured on the International Union for Conservation of Nature’s red list of threatened species, and its discovery has sparked new hope for the potential rewilding of Haiti’s forests.

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Brazil ‘failing to fully investigate’ Dom Phillips and Bruno Pereira murders

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Rights groups accuse Brazilian government of not employing sufficient resources to examine case

Leading human rights organisations have criticised the Brazilian government for what they say is a failure to properly investigate the murders of the Indigenous activist Bruno Pereira and the British journalist Dom Phillips.

The two men were shot dead in June but eight organisations said that from the moment they disappeared, to the discovery of their bodies, to the indictment of three men for their murders, Brazilian authorities have “not employed sufficient resources to fully comprehend all the elements in the case and the responsibility of all those involved”.

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Portrait of tyrant Thomas Picton moved to side room in Welsh museum

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Exhibition includes two specially commissioned works reframing story of former Trinidad governor

For more than a century, the portrait of Thomas Picton hung in a prominent position at the National Museum Cardiff, the image’s description hailing him as a military hero rather than a tyrant and a torturer, before it was removed from view in the wake of Black Lives Matter protests.

From Monday the two-metre-tall portrait of Lt Gen Picton is back on display in the Welsh capital – but in a very different context.

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Bolivia’s Morales keeps up comeback hopes as Copa Evo kicks off

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Some see youth football tournament as former president’s latest attempt to remain in running for 2025 elections

Politics and football have long mixed in South America, but not perhaps to this extent. On Sunday the Copa Evo, an international youth football tournament arranged by and named after Bolivia’s former president Evo Morales, kicked off in the country’s coca-growing tropics.

The buildup was dominated by political scraps, with the opposition questioning the involvement of the national football federation in a tournament that bears Morales’s name.

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Ancient sculptures found in storage box finally returned to Mexico

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Consulate accepts a dozen small artworks amid worldwide movement to repatriate Indigenous items

Small, ancient sculptures that have been gathering dust in an Albuquerque storage box are returning home to Mexico, where they are intertwined with the identity of Indigenous communities.

The Albuquerque Museum Foundation celebrated the repatriation of a dozen sculptures in a ceremony on Wednesday. The local consulate of Mexico accepted Olmec greenstone sculptures, a figure from the city of Zacatecas, bowls that were buried with tombs and other clay figurines that date back thousands of years.

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