Tesco, Morrisons and Waitrose have limited sales after concerns over shortages caused by Ukraine war
The latest supermarket data from Kantar shows shoppers have been stockpiling cooking oil due to concerns about the shortage of sunflower oil caused by the Russia-Ukraine war.
Here we look at what’s behind the shortages, what the situation means for consumers and how long it might last.
Continue reading...Numbers ticking up again after Canadian border police had refused entry to all asylum seekers to try to stop Covid spread
Snowy northern winters tend to see a drop in asylum seekers crossing from the United States into Canada at Roxham Road in Quebec. Not this past winter.
In December, the number of asylum seekers entering Canada outside formal land border crossings reached its highest point since August 2017, government statistics show.
Continue reading...President is touring Brazil in bid to win back voters before October election – and appears to be making headway
He came on horseback and wore a scowl as he spoke, telling thousands of yellow-clad believers they faced a momentous battle of good versus evil.
“Good has always triumphed – and this time it will be no different. Good will prevail!” the outsider bellowed as his followers encircled the stage that had been erected to welcome him to this sweltering satellite town in north-east Brazil.
Continue reading...Juan Orlando Hernández accused of involvement with drug cartels and related weapons charges
US Drug Enforcement Administration agents have extradited the Honduran former president Juan Orlando Hernández to New York, where he will face federal drug trafficking and weapons charges.
Honduran national police delivered a handcuffed Hernández to DEA agents at the Tegucigalpa airport just over two months after he was arrested outside his home on 15 February following an extradition request from the US Department of Justice.
Continue reading...No explanation given for change, with royals due to begin platinum jubilee tour of Caribbean on Friday
A planned visit by the Earl and Countess of Wessex to Grenada has been postponed at the 11th hour, just one day before the couple embark on their six-day platinum jubilee tour of the Caribbean and weeks after the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge’s controversial visit to the region.
No explanation for the late postponement was given by Buckingham Palace, which followed a consultation with the government of Grenada and on the advice of the governor general.
Continue reading...Footage shows five-year-old humpback in Canadian waters stalking and ambushing group more used to role of attackers
An aggressive humpback whale appeared to turn the tables on a pod of orcas off the Canadian coast, stalking then ambushing the group that more usually would have been attacking it.
The rare occurrence took place on the Salish Sea between British Columbia and Washington state and was witnessed and recorded by enthralled tourists on a whale-watching trip.
Continue reading...Cuba says US sanctions and decision to close American consular section in Havana encourage Cubans to seek riskier routes to US
American and Cuban officials are due to meet in Washington on Thursday to discuss migration concerns, people familiar with the matter said, in the highest-level formal US talks with Havana since Joe Biden took office last year.
The meeting comes at a time when Biden’s administration is grappling with rising numbers of undocumented migrants attempting to cross the US border from Mexico, with Cubans making up a growing portion of them.
Continue reading...Park agency’s order to stop harvesting salts for commercial gain has angered Indigenous community
For years, Melissa Daniels has been travelling to the vast wilds of northern Alberta to harvest naturally occurring salts on lands her ancestors once hunted and fished. She blends the salt with wildflowers from the woods and sells it in small batches.
But Canada’s national park agency recently ordered her to stop, in a move that has angered her community and highlighted the park’s troubling history.
Continue reading...Gasteranthus extinctus had been presumed extinct after extensive deforestation
A South American wildflower long believed to be extinct has been rediscovered.
Gasteranthus extinctus was found by biologists in the foothills of the Andes mountains and in remnant patches of forest in the Centinela region of Ecuador, almost 40 years after its last sighting.
Continue reading...Border patrol officials and the Cochise county sheriff’s office investigating cause of death of the 32-year-old woman
A Mexican woman attempting to climb the US border wall in eastern Arizona died after her leg became trapped in a climbing harness and she was left hanging upside down, authorities said.
Border patrol officials and the Cochise county sheriff’s office said they were investigating the cause of death of the 32-year-old on a section of the wall near Douglas, Arizona. The sheriff’s office said her foot and leg became entangled as she tried to maneuver down the US side of the wall and that she hung upside down “a significant amount of time”.
Continue reading...Government was in possession of a newly-released report that linked large-scale farms and wild salmon to contagious virus
Canada was warned in 2012 by its own scientists that a virus was infecting both farmed and wild salmon, but successive governments ignored the expert advice, saying for years that risks to salmon were low.
Justin Trudeau’s government has said it will phase out open-pen industrial fish farms off the coast of British Columbia by 2025. But both his government and the previous Conservative government were in possession of a newly released report that linked large-scale farms and wild salmon to the highly contagious Piscine orthoreovirus (PRV).
Continue reading...Samba schools will return to action but ‘blocos’ – street groups – are furious they have not yet received authorization to gather
Some of Rio’s most cherished street carnival groups say they are fighting for the right to party ahead of the city’s first official celebrations since the start of the coronavirus pandemic.
Rio’s world-famous samba schools will return to action next week for their first parades at the Sambódromo stadium in more than two years. But the carnival enthusiasts behind hundreds of “blocos” – riotous musical troupes that roam the streets clutching brass instruments and booze – are furious they have not received authorization to gather.
Continue reading...Three months after Elnaz Hajtamiri was taken, investigators have not determined a motive and have not received ransom demands
On a cold winter night, three armed men disguised as police officers arrived at a suburban home in a small Canadian resort town and knocked on the door, claiming that they had an arrest warrant for a 37-year-old woman who was staying there.
After overpowering the homeowner, they seized the woman, Iranian-born Elnaz Hajtamiri, hauled her barefoot through the snow into a vehicle, and sped off into the dark.
Continue reading...Former Colombia captain Freddy Rincón has died aged 55 after sustaining severe head injuries in a car crash.
Rincón was hurt after the vehicle he was driving collided with a bus on Monday in Cali, Colombia.
Continue reading...Army says it purchased three silicone implants, rather than the 60 reported by media, after revelations the military bought Viagra
Further questions have been raised about military spending on impotence treatments under Jair Bolsonaro after allegations Brazil’s defense ministry had approved the purchase of penile implants costing more than half a million pounds.
Those claims followed revelations on Monday that the armed forces had forked out for more than 35,000 Viagra pills in what one leading opposition politician called an erectile “outrage”.
Continue reading...Jamaican minister’s entry to race for secretary general called ‘monumental error’ by Antigua
Patricia Scotland’s hopes of being re-elected Commonwealth secretary general are under threat, after Jamaica’s foreign minister, Kamina Johnson-Smith, announced that she was challenging Scotland for the post.
The decision has sparked controversy in the Caribbean, which had previously met to back Scotland’s bid for a second term. The Antiguan prime minister, Gaston Browne, has described Jamaica’s decision to break ranks as a “monumental error”.
Continue reading...March raid in remote Putumayo village was intended to target former Farc dissidents now involved in cocaine trade
Colombian authorities are facing growing calls to investigate a botched army raid in which at least four civilians – including a 16-year old boy, a pregnant woman, and an Indigenous leader – were killed.
The raid took place early on 28 March in a remote village in the conflict-racked southern province of Putumayo. It was intended to target dissident guerrillas from the now-defunct Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (Farc) who are now involved in the cocaine trade.
Continue reading...Business groups warn of supply chain disruptions after Governor Greg Abbott orders checks for people and contraband smuggling
Mexican truck drivers have blockaded bridges at the border with the United States for a second day to protest against an order by the Texas governor, Greg Abbott, to increase safety inspections that has snarled traffic at ports of entry and led business groups to warn of supply chain disruptions.
“Yesterday it took me 17 hours to cross into the United States and return,” said Raymundo Galicia, a Mexican driver participating in a protest at the Santa Teresa bridge connecting San Jerónimo, Chihuahua, to Santa Teresa, New Mexico.
Continue reading...Number of young people disappeared is increasing as total number of cases exceeds 95,000, very few of which are solved
Corrupt state officials and organized crime factions are to blame for Mexico’s soaring number of enforced disappearances, whose victims increasingly include children – some as young as 12, according to a new UN investigation.
Just over 95,000 people were registered as disappeared at the end of November 2021. Of those, 40,000 were added in the past five years, according to the new report by the UN Committee on Enforced Disappearances.
Continue reading...Chrystia Freeland, who also serves as the finance minister, says the issue is her top domestic concern amid affordability crisis
Canada’s finance minister has described the country’s out-of-control housing prices as an “intergenerational injustice”, as political leaders struggle to rein in a spiralling affordability crisis.
Chrystia Freeland, who also serves as Canada’s deputy prime minister, said the issue is her top domestic concern.
Continue reading...