Category Archives: Americas

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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Hope of finding Dom Phillips alive has gone, say mother-in-law and wife

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The British journalist was travelling in the Amazon with Indigenous expert Bruno Pereira when they went missing

The wife and mother-in-law of missing British journalist Dom Phillips have said their hopes of finding him alive had gone, in a heartfelt and heart-breaking message that paid tribute to him and his travelling companion Bruno Pereira.

Phillips, a longtime contributor to the Guardian, and Pereira, an experienced Indigenous advocate, went missing on 5 June in a remote part of the western Amazon.

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Stars align for Cuban migrants as record numbers seek better life in US

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The journey to America, often via Nicaragua, has become more viable – and many are taking their chances at the border

One morning last spring, 22-year-old Ernesto Hernández set out from the outskirts of Havana on a rickety boat hoping to cross the Florida Straits. The plan was to leave behind a dilapidating communist-ruled island in which he saw no future, and sail into an American dream.

Nobody has heard from him, or the other six people onboard, since.

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Indigenous leaders express frustration at military in search for two men in Brazil

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Bruno Pereira and Dom Phillips went missing in the western Amazon, but the search has been called inefficient

Indigenous leaders in the area where a British journalist and Brazilian explorer went missing last Sunday have expressed increasing frustration at the lack of coordination in the search for the two men.

Indigenous expert Bruno Pereira and Dom Phillips, a longtime contributor to the Guardian, were last seen on Sunday morning while traveling by boat on the Itaquaí River in the western Amazon.

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Written warning on every cigarette in Canadian world-first

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‘Poison in every puff’ message proposed amid government concern photo warnings on tobacco packages have lost impact

Canada is poised to become the first country in the world to require that a warning be printed on every cigarette.

The move builds on Canada’s mandate to include graphic photo warnings on tobacco products’ packaging, a policy that started an international trend when it was introduced two decades ago.

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Hopes fade of finding missing men as Brazilian police report finding ‘apparently human’ material

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Dom Phillips and Bruno Pereira, missing for more than five days, had failed to show up in Atalaia do Norte at the end of a reporting trip

Hopes of finding a British journalist and a Brazilian guide faded on Friday as police announced an unsettling development in the search for the two men last seen five days ago on a remote river in Amazonia.

“Search teams found on the river, near to Atalaia do Norte, apparently human organic material,” Brazil’s federal police said in a statement.

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Indigenous groups scour forests and rivers for Dom Phillips and Bruno Pereira

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Indigenous activists have been searching for the missing pair since just hours after they vanished, with support from armed members of the military police

Warm rain lashed the speedboat as it barrelled south towards the spot where Binin Matis’s mentor vanished without a trace.

“He was like a father to me,” said the 31-year-old Indigenous leader as his vessel advanced to the U-shaped bend where Bruno Pereira was last seen. “Now he’s gone, I’m not sure what I’ll do.”

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Goodie bag to promote US industry contained ‘Made in China’ gifts

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President Joe Biden and Google chief Sundar Pichai among attendees offered free bag at development summit

A swag bag dished out by the American chamber of commerce to promote US industry at an international summit wasn’t quite on message – with some gifts bearing the slogan “Made in China”.

Delegates and attendees at the Summit of the Americas in Los Angeles this week have been plied with all manner of freebies and samples from various groups wanting to push their agenda.

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Dom Phillips: sister of missing journalist still hopeful he will be found

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Sian Phillips joins London vigil for Briton and the Brazilian Bruno Araújo Pereira who have vanished in Amazon

The sister of a British journalist missing in the Amazon has said she still has hope he will be found.

Sian Phillips was joined by supporters at a vigil for her brother Dom Phillips, who has worked as a freelance correspondent for the Guardian, and the Brazilian Indigenous affairs official Bruno Araujo Pereira outside the Brazilian embassy in central London on Thursday.

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Javari valley: the lawless primal wilderness where Dom Phillips went missing

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The largest refuge for Indigenous tribes living in isolation is also a hotspot for poachers and illegal loggers and a major smuggling route for cocaine traffickers

In Brazil’s far west lies an immense swath of rainforest and rugged terrain reachable only by snaking brown rivers. Wedged alongside the border with Peru, the Javari valley is nearly the size of Portugal, and is the largest refuge for Indigenous tribes living in isolation from the outside world.

“The Javari is one of the last true bastions of primal wilderness in the Amazon – and in the world,” said Scott Wallace, author of The Unconquered: In Search of the Amazon’s Last Uncontacted Tribes.

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Dom Phillips: editors around world urge Bolsonaro to do more to find missing journalist

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Media organisations call on Brazil’s president to step up efforts to find Phillips and Indigenous advocate Bruno Pereira

Editors and journalists from some of the world’s biggest news organisations have written to the Brazilian president, Jair Bolsonaro, to ask that he “urgently step up and fully resource the effort” to find missing British journalist Dom Phillips and Brazilian Indigenous advocate Bruno Pereira.

Led by the Guardian and the Washington Post, two newspapers for whom Phillips worked as a freelance correspondent, editors from at least 20 major media and press freedom organisations signed the open letter that was published on Thursday.

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Mexican megachurch leader jailed in US for more than 16 years for child sexual abuse

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La Luz del Mundo ‘apostle’ Naasón Joaquín García sentenced after admitting three abuse charges in Californian court

The leader of the Mexican megachurch La Luz del Mundo was sentenced on Wednesday to more than 16 years in a California prison for sexually abusing young female followers.

Naasón Joaquín García, 53, pleaded guilty last week in Los Angeles superior court to three felonies on the eve of a long-awaited trial.

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Pelé joins calls for Brazil to step up search for pair missing in Amazon

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Three-time World Cup winner joined sports, culture and media figures in calling for action over Dom Phillips and Bruno Pereira

A host of Brazilian celebrities, led by the three-time World Cup winner Pelé, have joined calls for authorities to intensify their search for a British journalist and Brazilian Indigenous advocate missing in the Amazon rainforest.

Pelé, now 81 and considered one of the greatest players of all time, retweeted a video made by Phillips’s wife appealing for more urgency in the search for her husband and Bruno Pereira.

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Canada: two died as police sought approval to tweet 2020 mass shooting warning

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Public inquiry hears of police delays and communication failures during attack in Nova Scotia in which 22 people died

Two people died in the time it took Canadian police to get internal approval to tweet a warning to the public about the suspect in the 2020 Nova Scotia mass shooting, a public inquiry was told on Wednesday.

Lia Scanlan, former director of strategic communications for the Royal Canadian Mounted Police in Nova Scotia, spoke at length on Wednesday, a day after testimony surfaced in which she said she was “glad” no province-wide alert was sent out during the 13-hour rampage warning the public of a gunman driving a replica police cruiser.

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UK will not impose direct rule on British Virgin Islands, Liz Truss says

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UK foreign secretary decided to give territory two years to implement reforms to tackle corruption

Direct rule will not be imposed on the British Virgin Islands (BVI) after the UK foreign secretary decided to give the territory’s emergency administration two years to implement reforms to tackle endemic corruption.

Last month the BVI’s premier, Andrew Fahie, faced charges of money laundering and conspiring to import cocaine after he was arrested in a sting operation by US agents posing as Mexican drug traffickers in Miami. He denies the charges.

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