Category Archives: Americas

Painting swapped in 70s for grilled cheese sandwich serves up windfall

Posted on by

Painting by Canadian folk artist Maud Lewis traded for a meal at Irene and Tony Demas’s restaurant could fetch C$35,000

Working out of the kitchen of their small restaurant in Ontario in the 1970s, Irene Demas and her husband Tony soon learned the value of trading their dishes for the talents of local bakers, craftspeople and artisans.

“Everyone supported everyone back then,” said Irene, at the time a bright-eyed chef in her 20s. In exchange for daily fresh flowers, for example, the couple would take soup and a sandwich to the florist next door.

Continue reading...

Lula launches campaign to reclaim Brazilian presidency from Bolsonaro

Posted on by

Leftwinger tells rally that public must unite against far-right incumbent’s ‘incompetence and authoritarianism’

Brazil’s former leader Luiz Inació Lula da Silva has kickstarted what he hopes will be a sensational finale to one of Latin America’s most extraordinary political careers, publicly declaring his intention to challenge Jair Bolsonaro for the presidency and urging citizens to unite against the far-right populist’s “incompetence and authoritarianism”.

Speaking at a rally in São Paulo, where the one-time lathe operator began his spectacular rise to power as a union leader more than four decades ago, Lula publicly spelled out his ambition to reclaim the presidency for the first time.

Continue reading...

‘Record after record’: Brazil’s Amazon deforestation hits April high, nearly double previous peak

Posted on by

Climate analysts are astounded by such a high reading during the rainy season, and is the third monthly record this year

Deforestation in Brazil’s Amazon surged to record levels for the month of April, nearly doubling the area of forest removed in that month last year – the previous April record – preliminary government data has shown, alarming environmental campaigners.

In the first 29 days of April, deforestation in the region totalled 1,012.5 square km (390 square miles), according to data from national space research agency Inpe on Friday. The agency, which has compiled the monthly data series since 2015/2016, will report data for the final day of April next week.

Continue reading...

Havana explosion: 26 killed and 74 treated in hospital after hotel blast

Posted on by

Cuban president Miguel Díaz-Canel says explosion at Hotel Saratoga appears to have been caused by a gas leak

At least 26 people have been killed and a further 74 have been treated in hospital after a powerful explosion tore the façade from a hotel in the Cuban capital, sending plumes of dust into the air and leaving rubble strewn across the street in the historic centre of Havana.

Speaking at the scene soon afterwards, the Cuban president, Miguel Díaz-Canel, ruled out a bomb and said the blast at the Hotel Saratoga appeared to have been caused by a gas leak.

Continue reading...

Body of a Black girl found in dumpster in affluent Toronto neighbourhood

Posted on by

Homicide investigators are trying to identify the child, whose cause of death is not yet known

Police in Canada are trying to identify a young Black girl whose body was found in a Toronto dumpster, a grim discovery that has shaken the city and seasoned investigators looking into the case.

The Toronto police service announced on Thursday that the body, discovered on Monday in an affluent neighbourhood, was that of a young Black girl, believed to be between the ages of four and seven.

Continue reading...

Canada plane crash mystery deepens with two murder suspects among dead

Posted on by

Investigation into the crash at Sioux Lookout revealed two of four passengers were fleeing murder and conspiracy charges

A plane crash in the rugged hinterlands of Canada during seemingly calm weather has prompted a federal investigation into what could have brought down the small aircraft.

But revelations that two of the passengers were fleeing murder and conspiracy charges and had links to organized crime have only deepened the mystery over the doomed flight.

Continue reading...

Ninth journalist killed in Mexico this year as violence against media soars

Posted on by

Murder of veteran Luis Enrique Ramírez – found in bag beside road – brings estimated death toll of journalists in president’s term to 34

A Mexican journalist has been found dead in Sinaloa state, authorities say, marking the ninth death of a media worker in a unprecedentedly bloody year for the country which has drawn international scrutiny.

Luis Enrique Ramírez, a veteran journalist and columnist at El Debate, was found dead on the side of a highway, the state’s attorney general said on Twitter.

Continue reading...

Peru’s leader and his wife investigated for allegedly plagiarizing master’s thesis

Posted on by

TV station finds 54% of document was apparently copied but Pedro Castillo calls accusations ‘malicious’

Peruvian prosecutors are investigating President Pedro Castillo and his wife for alleged plagiarism after a local television station said an investigation showed the couple may have copied more than half the master’s thesis they co-authored.

Panamericana television’s Panorama program used a transparency request to obtain the text of the 121-page thesis and submitted it to the plagiarism detection service Turnitin. Panorama said the couple appeared to have plagiarized 54% of it from other authors.

Continue reading...

Esper book details Trump rage at Pence and proposal to hit Mexico with missiles

Posted on by

Memoir from ex-defense chief Mark Esper details extraordinary outbursts he says he helped to defuse

In the heated summer of 2020, thwarted in his desire for a violent crackdown on protesters for racial justice, Donald Trump included his vice-president in a complaint that senior advisers were “losers”.

Trump’s second defense secretary, Mark Esper, details the Oval Office outburst in a new book. A Sacred Oath: Memoirs of a Defense Secretary in Extraordinary Times, will be published next week. The Guardian obtained a copy.

Continue reading...

Vaquita porpoise could survive … but only if illegal fishing stops immediately

Posted on by

DNA study finds rarest cetacean, only found in Gulf of California, has enough genetic diversity to recover – if gillnet ban is enforced


Scientists studying the DNA of the world’s smallest cetacean and rarest marine mammal, the vaquita porpoise, have made a surprising and bittersweet discovery.

With a tiny population of fewer than 10 individuals left, the mammal was assumed by conservationists to be at a similar risk of harmful mutations and inbreeding as other species with small gene pools.

Continue reading...

Alleged Colombian cartel head due in New York court after extradition

Posted on by

Victims of paramilitaries demand Dairo Antonio Úsuga come clean about atrocities committed by forces he commanded

The accused head of Colombia’s Gulf Clan cartel is due to appear in a federal court in New York on Thursday, as victims in his home country call for guarantees that he will come clean on atrocities committed by the feared paramilitary fighters he once commanded.

Dairo Antonio Úsuga, who is Colombia’s most wanted drug suspect for nearly a decade, was extradited from Colombia late on Wednesday on cocaine and weapons charges.

Continue reading...

CIA director urged Bolsonaro to stop doubting Brazil’s voting system – report

Posted on by

Fears Brazilian president might refuse to accept defeat in this year’s election as leftist rival Lula is set to announce candidacy

The CIA director William Burns urged Jair Bolsonaro to stop questioning his country’s voting system, it has been claimed, amid growing fears the Brazilian president might refuse to accept defeat in this year’s election.

Polls suggest Bolsonaro, a far-right populist famed for his adulation of Donald Trump, will struggle to secure a second term when about 150 million Brazilians head to the polls in October to choose their next leader.

Continue reading...

Latin American feminists vow to protect abortion rights at home after shock US ruling

Posted on by

Women’s movements have fought hard to reverse anti-abortion laws in their countries and say it’s not the end for the US

Reproductive rights activists across Latin America have vowed to protect hard-fought gains in their own territories as they brace for potential ripple effects if the US supreme court overturns Roe vs Wade – the 1973 ruling which guarantees the right to abortion.

Latin America has some of the most draconian anti-abortion laws in the world. But feminist movements have fought for decades to chip away at the prohibitions, and in recent years a younger, diverse generation of activists has mobilized in massive numbers to help clinch a string of victories in traditionally conservative countries.

Continue reading...

BVI premier accused of cocaine trafficking granted bail in Miami

Posted on by

Judge rejects prosecutors’ claim that Andrew Fahie, arrested in DEA drug sting, could flee US if freed from prison

The premier of the British Virgin Islands, whom US prosecutors described in court as “corrupt to the core”, has been given a $500,000 bond that would allow him to be released from prison as he awaits trial on charges tied to a US narcotics sting.

Federal court judge Alicia Otazo-Reyes rejected prosecutors’ argument that Andrew Fahie would flee the US and possibly engage in criminal activity if he is freed.

Continue reading...

For the first time in 200 years, people on this Canadian island will be without a doctor

Posted on by

Fogo Island will lose its only full-time physician in June, leaving the community to journey six hours away to find care

For more than two centuries, residents of a remote Canadian island in the north Atlantic knew they could count on a nearby doctor for relief of most ailments.

But this June, Fogo Island will lose the community’s only full-time physician, a trend mirrored in many of Newfoundland’s towns and villages as the region battles economic decline and a looming demographic crisis. The closest doctor will be a six-hour ferry ride away, subject to the vagaries of powerful maritime storms.

Continue reading...

Erosion of abortion rights gathers pace around the world as US signals new era

Posted on by

A leaked supreme court draft ruling shows the US is set to end 50 years of a woman’s right to choose. Elsewhere, the battle still rages

In 2022, abortion remains one of the most controversial and bitterly contested ethical and political battlegrounds. It is illegal for women to terminate their pregnancies in any circumstance in 24 countries, with a further 37 restricting access in any case except when the mother’s life is in danger.

As a leaked document signals that the US supreme court is poised to strike down the landmark 1973 ruling in Roe v Wade, millions of American women face losing their access to legal abortions, joining millions more living in those countries rejecting a woman’s right to choose.

Continue reading...

Drone carrying guns into Canada from US intercepted after crashing into tree

Posted on by

Police in Port Lambton, Ontario, called after device carrying shopping bag of guns flew into tree and operator fled in vehicle

Police in Canada have intercepted a drone which crossed the border from the United States carrying a shopping bag with nearly a dozen handguns – but only after the pilot crashed the device into a nearby tree.

Officers in southern Ontario were called to a home near the town of Port Lambton, north-east of Detroit, after residents reported seeing a stranger maneuvering a commercial drone.

Continue reading...

Ukrainian refugees waiting at Mexico camp urge US to open doors

Posted on by

Fifty to 100 people arriving at camp every day as some told at US border in Tijuana they would no longer be admitted

On a dusty field on the east side of Mexico’s sprawling capital, about 500 Ukrainian refugees are waiting in large tents under a searing sun for the United States government to tell them they can come.

The camp has only been open a week and 50 to 100 people are arriving every day. Some have already been to the US border in Tijuana where they were told they would no longer be admitted. Others arrived at airports in Mexico City or Cancún, anywhere they could find a ticket from Europe.

Continue reading...

Canadian police fatally shoot polar bear that wandered into Quebec community

Posted on by

Bear had wandered hundreds of kilometres south of species’ territory in incident experts say could become more common

Canadian police have shot and killed a polar bear that wandered into a Quebec community hundreds of kilometres south of the species’ normal territory, in an incident that experts warn could become more common as sea ice coverage becomes more unpredictable thanks to global heating.

The Sûreté du Québec, the provincial police service, warned residents this weekend that a polar bear had been spotted near the town of Madeleine-Centre – the first time the Arctic’s apex predator had been spotted in the community.

Continue reading...

British Virgin Islands premier demands release from US custody in cocaine case

Posted on by

Andrew Fahie was arrested last week in a US Drug Enforcement Administration sting as he was preparing to board a private jet

The premier of the British Virgin Islands has demanded his immediate release from US custody, arguing he is immune from prosecution on cocaine-smuggling charges because he is the elected, constitutional head of government of the British overseas territory.

An attorney for Andrew Fahie made the request in a filing with Miami federal court on Monday.

Continue reading...